


g.h.L.o

by Sapphire_Princess



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron 2.0, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-07 04:28:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 37,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/426916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphire_Princess/pseuds/Sapphire_Princess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>g.h.L.o (grid help Location orientation program) has existed inside the Encom system for several years, it's purpose is to find things, programs and files that are lost.<br/>Sam Flynn asks Alan Bradley for help contacting it's user and programmer whilst they all come to terms with the changes in their own lives, what has been lost, won and still to fight for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sam Flynn

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer:I don't own Tron/Tron Legacy/Tron 2.0 or in fact anything to do with Tron. I own my original Characters and story lines though. No money has or will exchange hands and this was written purely for entertainment value.
> 
> I finished this over a year ago and was never, never going to post it anywhere. I wrote the whole thing in less than 2 months (37,000 words), proofed and beta'd it myself. The reason for posting it now is just so that should anyone want to read it, should anyone be interested then it at least exists somewhere other than a hidden folder on my computer or the printed copy on my desk. That and RobinRocks really wanted to know what I had been up to in that time.
> 
> Each chapter will focus on one of the characters arc and events will interlink. The first, Sam's is the shortest, all the rest are much longer.

**_Sam Flynn_ **

 

 

Sam Flynn looked right at his fathers friend, a friend he’d barely seen over the years and one he’d never quite figure out. Roy Kleinberg had been a good friend of his parents and the Bradley's but over the years even though he’d never really moved away he’d closed himself off, distancing himself as much as he was able.

“He would have appreciated everything you did for him and I have to admit that you were right all along… He had no reason to leave and so many more to stay.” 

Roy was still a little shy but quietly determined in his own way and had always - without any doubt - known that Kevin Flynn was alive out there somewhere. Which is what had made this so hard for Sam to do. With Alan and Lora it had been easier, close friends though his father and Alan were, there was an understanding there that had made the blow less devastating. They had each other, their family and friends, Sam even suspected it was more like closure or finding peace after all this time simply by knowing what had happened, Even if he’d had to skimp on some of the details for now, it turned out Showing up at their front door with Quorra had been a good icebreaker and had lightened the mood a little.

“It was the least I could do.” Roy told him quietly, still looking pretty nervous and very much like he expected the FBI to walk in on them at any moment, his hands couldn’t stay still in his lap, removing lint that wasn’t there then fiddling with his buttons. Alan had explained the basics as to what had happened to make him so nervous and Sam had shut down the hunt for Flynn Lives by outwardly admitting he had been the one to hack Encom’s system and release Encom 12. Turned out there wasn’t much they could do when the owner of the company gave something he owned away for free.

Sam nodded, not sure of what else to say. He’d said pretty much everything he’d wanted to but there now seemed to be something else playing on his mind, something highlighted by Roy’s hands clenched together and the look in his eyes. Sam _knew_ that look, had seen in on his father when his mother died and subsequently on everyone he’d known when his father disappeared. The closest thing it came to was grief… even after all this time.

“I don’t just mean the movement.” Sam added, not really knowing why. It was just the first thing that occurred to him to say and it was true. “After mom died things were hard… Dad was… I don’t know how to explain it…”

“I remember.” The older man told him and Sam nodded, realising the truth there, he’d probably known better than Sam.

“But I think it helped him when you were there, towards the time he disappeared at least, he was smiling again and not just making an effort for me, actually smiling, telling stories of the Grid, taking me out on our bikes...he was happy again.” Sam smiled at the memory and looking at Roy he could see the same expression although is was altered by the inescapable look of sadness in his eyes. “I think… I know that you must have really helped him through what happened.”

“Lora and Alan did the same.” 

“In their own way yeah, without them and my Grandparents I can’t imagine how much harder it would have been but with you it was different. Dad was always that little bit brighter when you were around. I guess I just hadn’t given it any thought until now.” It had been right in front of him but as a child he hadn’t thought anything of it.

Roy smiled again but this time it seemed more hopeful somehow, still trying to hide the sadness there but Sam could tell it would take longer for that to fade, if it ever really did.

“Thank you Sam.” Roy spoke as though fighting the tightness in his throat, speaking around it purposefully. 

“It’s the least I could do.” Sam stood then, knowing it was time for him to leave. “You coming to Alan and Lora’s Barbecue?” 

“I don’t know, Alan told me about it last week but I’ll see.” Roy was facing the window, the late morning sun shining just out of sight and he looked younger for just a moment like the Uncle that Sam remembered as a boy.

“It’d be good to see you there, I know Quorra really wants to meet you. She’s heard a lot about you from my Dad.”

Roy’s eyes flashed to his and he nodded. “She’s the girl he rescued?” when Sam nodded the other man seemed suddenly more interested. 

“She spent the past 20 years with him, although as she’ll tell you it felt longer.” He hadn’t quite gotten around to explaining that part yet. “He was her best friend and mentor.”

“And you’re sure she’d be alright with that? I mean after…” Sam could almost see what he was thinking and didn’t waste any time putting his mind at ease.

“She’d love to talk to you, said there are things only you would understand.” Sam tried to keep his own realisation out of his voice and his expression, he had a feeling that the other man would be more uncomfortable if he knew what Sam had come to understand during their conversation.

“Alright.” 

“Good, we’ll see you there.” He flashed him a Sam Flynn signature smile on his way out.

 

***

There was a sharp knock on his door and Alan gave permission for whoever it was to enter, he didn’t have much left to do that afternoon anyway and thanks to the restructuring whoever it was would be someone he didn’t mind talking to.

“Hey Alan, mind if I come in?” Sam Flynn popped his head around the door, the top of his Flynn lives t shirt visible enough from where he stood.

“Of course, come on in. Just out of interest though, how many of those shirts do you have? Ever since you took back the company I’ve seen you in a new one at least once a week.” He sat back in his chair and motioned for Sam to take the one opposite.

“Ahhh, I’m not sure actually. Jett gave me a few of his spares.” Alan raised an eyebrow at that but Sam brushed it off with a light chuckle. “The rest I got from Uncle Roy and I didn’t ask any questions, I think the grey one is probably my favourite.”

“Hmm.” Alan shook his head a little and chuckled. “What brings you here anyway, can’t be much left to do today, everything seems set for next week.”

“Yeah… it’s a little daunting to be honest, not really used to following the rules yet.” Sam admitted, he had taken on the job knowing there would be no more running off and abandoning this in search of something else.

“You’ll get used to it and you’ll be fine.” Alan’s words were the same steady and trustworthy ones Sam had grown up with, he had never lied and Sam considered that he may never do so, he normally avoided the truth if anything.

“Yeah, anyway, I’ve been working on trying to reconstruct some of the data from my dad’s grid - from the user end this time, I’m pretty sure it’s not stable enough for anyone to explore as it were.” He explained when Alan sent him a look he took to be disapproving.

“From what you’ve told me I’d have to agree with you.”

“Yeah, Q’s pretty insistent I stay out of it this time and that’s what brings me here actually.”

“Oh?” Alan was pretty curious as to what he wanted, Kevin had come to ask him a favour like this once, when he asked for a copy of Tron to upgrade and put on a system he was working on. 

“I was looking through our systems -which is a lot easier with passwords than hacking I have to say - and I found something,a program called g.h.L.o.” 

Alan knew immediately what he was referring to and sat up a little in his chair. “grid help, location orientation program, it’s been used in the system for the past seven years, gets upgraded every time the system does.”

“That’s the one, only I don’t seem to have permission to use it in any other system but the main Encom one, which isn’t unusual, it’s been the same here ever since my dad took over from what I’m told… it’s just that I have no way of contacting the programmer, they don’t work here or in any of our offices in the US.”

“That’s correct.” 

“I did manage to find out that their user is Hanabi and that they’ve been a registered user in Encom since 1988 but their contact information seems to lead me to you.”

“And that’s why you’re here?” Alan asked, he knew what the program was capable of and didn’t really need to guess why Sam wanted to use it.

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Alan nodded. “They’ve requested to be kept out of things as it were, their contract goes so far as to state they upgrade the program from time to time and perform any maintenance needed and they report to me directly on any matters relating to g.h.L.o.”

“Fair enough but Alan I’ve seen it and I’ve been testing it for the past few days, sending it searching for files I’ve hidden in the system. It even recompiled data that I scrambled, g.h.L.o is pretty impressive.” Alan was starting to wonder how long Sam had been wanting to ask about the program judging by how much research he’d put into it so far.

“Do you need me to contact them about using their program?” 

Sam smiled but he looked more nervous than anything. “It’s a bit more than that actually Alan, I was wondering if they’d be able to modify it, or let me modify it for use on the other system.”

Alan sat back in his chair. “Ah.” was his only response. 

“I know, I know they’re only contracted to maintain it and I can’t guarantee I can offer them anything official for their help but it’s either that or I figure out how to write something like g.h.L.o on my own and I don’t have the time or the knowledge to do a job that thorough.” he sighed and looked at Alan. “If it’s because they’re Japanese - I figured from their username they might be, it was written in japanese in the system, I can get Q to translate the notes on what I need altering.” 

Alan chuckled at that. “They’re bilingual so english will be fine.” He looked at Sam, judging how serious he was and wondering if he knew how much like his father he looked when he spoke, his manner was much more like his mothers though and he was glad that the four or so short years he had with her had had a positive impact on his life.

“Does that mean you’ll ask them?” Sam asked, trying not to smile and maintain his serious expression.

“Yes, it means I will ask them. I can’t promise anything but they’ve been willing to help out with a few things in the past and if I explain why you need it Hanabi might be willing to do the work themselves.”

“Thank you Alan, I mean it - I’ll hand over my notes on the modifications and system specs at the barbecue tomorrow, just want to make sure I’ve got it all worked out.” He stood, almost bouncing on his feet and Alan couldn’t suppress another chuckle.

“I’ll see you tomorrow Sam, Lora said anytime after 2 will be fine and if you and Quorra are going to want to spend the night she’s sorted out a couple of the guest rooms.” Which for a woman who still couldn’t keep her own wardrobe in order had always surprised him. Everything else in the house had to be tidy but in their room the floor was an obstacle course made from her shoe collection.

“Thanks, I’ll let Q know. Are Hannah and Jett going to be there?” Sam asked, now almost at the door. He hadn’t seen Alan and Lora’s daughter for six months or so and had only seen Jett once in the last three.

“Yes, everyone’s home for once, I think Hannah’s back for good, not at home but California at least and Jett is here for a few days, he showed up on Wednesday.” His eyes drifted to the pictures of his family on his desk. One of Lora with Jett and Hannah when they were much younger and a family one from Italy two years ago when they visited Hannah whilst she was working and studying art over there. There were other photo’s too but those two stood pride of place next to one of Sam, Jordan and Kevin which he wasn’t sure Sam had ever noticed.

“That reminds me, I owe Jett a rematch.” Alan sent him a quizzical look and Sam smiled in response. “I’ll see you tomorrow Alan and thank you.” 

 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important information. (Thought it best to include this to explain a few things)
> 
> Alan and Lora Bradley married Autumn 1982
> 
> Jethro Bradley Born September 1983
> 
> Hannah Bradley Born November 1985
> 
>  
> 
> Jordan Flynn (Kevin’s Mom) doesn’t die until early 1987 to coincide with the pictures and earlier (as in reported earlier she dies later) dates of her death from the Flynn lives ARG.


	2. Hannah Bradley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannah Bradley is the youngest child of Alan and Lora Bradley.  
> This is her story arc but she is by no means the only character in it, just more of the focus for this part of the story. Written across a time period from 1985 - present day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hannah Bradley is actually an original character from one of my on going original stories. When my muse decided writing this was a good way to spend two months of last year Hannah seemed to be the perfect character to mix in with the others. At the time I had never considered posting this anywhere and I'm glad of that, it meant i could do exactly what I wanted without worrying about other peoples reactions (some people don't like OC's). I'm really happy with how it turned out.

**_Hannah Bradley_**

_  
_

“Hannah, did Mom find you?” Jett asked, walking past her and into the rest of the main house, in his usual style, straight to the point and with a tray of food in his hand. He was clearly on his way to the front room or the den with no intention of returning unless his vast pile of food ran out.

“Yeah, she just wanted to check whether or not I was staying overnight or going home.” She told her brother.

“What did you tell her?” He asked, helping himself to the pile of fries gathered in a haphazard pile. 

“That I’d be around for a few days, my apartment still doesn’t feel quite like home, not after having been away for so long then here there and everywhere over the last year.”  She pulled her shawl around her shoulders and was thankful she’d chosen to wear her long blue summer dress, the scalding hot summers day had given way to a much cooler evening.

“The life of a popular artist.” Jett commented with a hint of well meaning sarcasm in his voice.

“Popular might be going a bit too far there Jett but I’m not going to complain, since coming back from Italy last year I’ve been working on one commission or exhibit after another. I’ve been pretty lucky.” 

“Lucky maybe.” He shrugged, he was constantly reminding her not to be so modest. “I’ll see you later okay?” Which she supposed was his way of paying her a compliment and ending the conversation at the same time.

Hannah nodded, her long honey brown hair falling around her shoulders with the breeze as she did.

“Night Jett.” And her older brother made his way inside the house.

She took a deep breath of summer air, cold though it now was there still remained a hint of the warmth from the day in the atmosphere if nothing else. She could hear the music playing from the kitchen to her left and walked down the few stone steps leading to it, their house was on three floors with the kitchen and most of the main living space on the ground or first floor but it depended on whether you were coming from the front or the back as to which floor you would find yourself on.

The main party come barbecue was going on in their garden, large but not so big that you could become lost in it, her parents friends seemed happy to chat, eat and even dance as the sun set in the distance. 

She’d wandered off just to get some space for a while, happy to talk about her work and her time in Italy to those who hadn’t seen her much in the past year but also looking for sometime to just enjoy the evening. 

Hannah smiled when she realised who was in the Kitchen, she could see them clearly from her view sat on the large bottom step and rolled her eyes a little when she heard the lyrics of the song that reached her ears.

“Mind if I join you?” Hannah looked up at her visiter and shook her head, happy enough to see him and realising this was the first time she’d seen him for more than a few seconds in all the hours he’d been here.

“It’s fine Uncle Roy, take a seat.” And he did, sitting on the same step just a little further along. He didn’t attempt to start a conversation and Hannah was happy enough to sit in silence and watch the kitchen’s inhabitants dancing slowly to the music.

 

_Only Solutions….._

 

“Most kids wouldn’t want to watch their parents dancing.” His tone was friendly and ever so slightly mocking but Hannah didn’t mind.

“Don’t worry, if it becomes anything more than just dancing then I’ll be off like a shot, I want to see them happy not doing anything mushy.” She explained with a light chuckle.”It’s good to see you by the way, Dad mentioned he and Mom had asked you to come along.” 

“I’m glad I came.” Her uncle returned her smile and they both went back to watching the kitchen. “Can I ask you something?” Roy asked after a little while and Hannah nodded, sure by this point they had the song or at least the album on repeat. 

“Sure go ahead.” Her dad was attempting to spin her mom which seemed to end with giggles and almost falling into the counter.

“Why are you so worried about their happiness? I mean I’ve known Alan and Lora for years and they’ve had their rough times, your mom moved to Washington and they got through it and they’ve had their ups and downs since but they’ve always been happy with each other and with you and your brother.” He was rambling a little but Hannah didn’t really mind, he’d had a tough time of late and hadn’t spoken so openly in years. 

“That’s not really it…. it’s kinda hard to explain but when Aunt Jordan died and Uncle Kevin disappeared I saw what it did to Sam, he’s only two years older than me - the same age as my brother too and I was terrified of the same thing happening to us… I was so afraid that something would happen to one or both of my parents that I didn’t know how to cope with it.” 

“You were four, that sounds like a normal reaction to me.” He told her quietly.

“Maybe, but I couldn’t stand it, I cried myself to sleep but I wouldn’t tell them why.” Hannah sounded as though she was almost living in the memory, if only for a little while. “Even Jett was worried, let me borrow his favourite teddy to see if it would help… but in the end none of those things helped.”

“Oh?” Roy asked, wondering what she had meant by that.

“I was always more interested in painting than reading when I was little but my parents still insisted on buying books for the house and they have every one that uncle Kevin wrote.” She could tell by her uncle’s smile that he did too and probably knew what she was going to say, even if her explanation was a little long winded. “I didn’t get very far, only read the first page or so but it was his last published book and the only one since his wife had died. I don’t remember it all but I do remember the meaning.”

“You can’t live your life wondering and worrying about how it will end or what awaits you around the corner, you have to enjoy what you have while it lasts and live. It’s how we use our time, who we love and how we live our lives that’s important.” Roy said, knowing it verbatim and only wishing that for him it had been enough. She looked at him then, really looked at him and saw what she had always known to be there, the burden he had given himself to carry although it seemed somewhat lighter now. He just smiled kindly at her in response.

“I read it and I just remember sitting there till my dad came home, staring at the page as if somehow moving would take away the feeling, remove the relief I found when I looked at it.” She smiled with the memory. “My dad found me and for a while just stood in the door frame watching me, I don’t know what he was thinking. I think even by my third birthday he’d realised I was never going to be a programmer or a scientist.” 

 

She could still remember the dust moats in the air and the stillness of everything _, her dress was caught underneath her knees and the carpet was leaving imprints on her legs, she had always been one to fidget and she supposed that was why her dad was staring at her. For once she wasn’t moving at all._

__

_“Hannah, is everything alright?” He asked taking a step into the room wearing the same grey suit he always seemed to wear these days and his glasses were in his hand._

__

_She looked up at him, hair covering the side of her face and her eyes that looked so much like her mothers staring at him. He bent down next to her, looking and waiting for an answer._

__

_“Yes.” She told him, although she still held the book tightly._

__

_“What are you reading?” He asked gently, wary of his daughters recent behaviour._

__

_“A letter from Uncle Kevin.” She told him and watched her dad take a deep breath just like her mother did every time he was mentioned. Hannah hoped he came home soon, so many people were sad and lost since he’d gone away._

__

_“What does it say sweetheart?”  He asked._

__

_“That we should be happy whilst we can, I think… there are a lot of words.” Hannah wrinkled her nose but still managed to look brighter than she had in months._

__

_“That’s pretty accurate actually.” Alan put his arm around his daughters shoulder and felt her relax instantly, he couldn’t help but noticed that she still had her small hands clamped around the sides of the book, almost imprinting on the pages. “If you want you can have the book, your mother has another copy somewhere.”_

__

_“So I can keep it?” She asked._

__

_“Yeah, you can keep it.”_

__

_Hannah smiled brightly then, closing the book and holding it to her chest, finally fidgeting and moving around on the carpet._

__

_“Go put it away safe, I think your mom’s making cookies in the kitchen and could probably use your help.” He added, knowing the quiet moment was over and his daughter was somewhere close to being herself again._

_  
_

__

“I don’t think Dad realised, or maybe he did and didn’t want to say anything … either way it really helped me. When I’m away from here I worry in the same way that everybody does about home but I’m always comforted by remembering the good things and I suppose it helps that I enjoy my job, makes for a good distraction.”

“But when you’re here you want to make sure they’re making the most of things.” Roy finished for her, having reached an understanding with Hannah Bradley, more mature than she would sometimes have people believe.

“Yeah. Jett doesn’t understand but I don’t think he has to, he just gets on with things and takes everything as it comes. He’s always just sort of acted on instinct.”

He laughed but when he looked at her she was wrinkling her nose and looking anywhere but the kitchen.

“Uncle Roy?”

“Yeah?”

“Wanna go see if there is any cake left?”  Hannah had already stood and was looking pointedly in the direction of the garden.

Roy took a quick look in the kitchen then laughed. “Sure.”

 

***

It was pretty late in the evening when Hannah braved the kitchen again and even then she checked through the windows before stepping inside. Roy had stayed and chatted with her and the others that had joined them. Sam returned from apparently catching up with Jett and Quorra seemed eager to start a conversation with her reluctant Uncle after having spent most of the evening talking to the few of their friends that had been invited or exploring their garden.

“Mom?” She called from the doorway.

"What’s up honey?” Lora asked in reply, heels removed and feet bare on the cool tiles. Her hair was tied in a rough pony and her favourite cardigan wrapped around her, arms poking out of the larger than necessary sleeves. She didn’t usually wear it when guests were in the house but Hannah figured that with only their closest friends still there her mom had probably felt comfortable enough to dig it out.

“Just wondered if you needed any help bringing anything in?” 

“No, it’s fine, Your Dad and brother should have finished it by now, you wanna come take a seat?” Her mother looked tired but happy and Hannah hid her relief with a smile, looping long hair behind her ear and lifting herself up onto the adjacent stool to her mothers around their kitchen table.

“You want anything to drink?” But Hannah shook her head. “Hannah?” Lora asked again after the silence just seemed to continue.

She just didn’t know how to respond and didn’t think _I don’t mind what we talk about as long as we do,_ would really make any sense to the mother she’s loved and respected all these years.

“I’m fine mom, just tired I think, I’ve had a really good time. Thank you.” It’s the truth and she hoped it was enough, Hannah wasn’t feeling melancholy - just peaceful but didn’t know how to express it. “I’m not going to be travelling so much anymore - not for a while at least, I’ve done enough to be able to settle down and work at my studio here.” She said, deciding to make the topic as light as her mood, didn’t want her parents worrying over nothing.

“Is that why you kept your apartment?” Her mother asked, sipping her coco from the still warm mug in her hands.

“Yeah, I always planned to come back after Italy and even over the last year, I’ve seen enough of the world for now and I like it here, especially now everyone seems happier.” She shared a look with her mom then and let the understanding pass between them. Her dad, Sam and Roy were all so much more at peace with themselves and even they were feeling more relaxed.

“I can’t guarantee that will mean you get to spend anymore time with your brother, he’s off like at shot when he has an idea about something and we don’t see him for weeks.” 

“Jett is Jett, don’t think I know of any way to change that.” As older brothers went he could have been a lot worse and she was thankful for that, suspected it had something to do with the loss of their parents close friends but he’d rarely bugged or bothered her about anything.

“Hannah, can I ask you something?” her mother looked nervous but Hannah nodded anyway. “How do you feel about all this sweetheart, your father being head of the board… and what Sam told you?”

“Dad seems happy again, you both seem happy again and that’s all that matters, but what Sam told me?” Hannah smiled and wondered what exactly her mother was expecting her reaction to be. “I believe him, I have more reason to than not… guess I just wish they’d been as lucky as I was.” from the look on her mothers face she seemed to have said exactly what she expected. “I was three mom and it was the Encom system, Tron and Yori were there, everything was fine.”

Lora looked very much like she wanted to say something to her daughter but they were interrupted by Jett and Alan bringing in the last of the dishes rather nosily for how late it was getting started to pile them into the dishwasher before they realised they had company.

“We won’t be long.” Her father told them, pulling out the second shelf whilst Jett filled it at lightning speed.

"Yeah, I’ve got some stuff I want to finish before I turn in.” Jett added. “Plus Sam says he want’s some help with something or another in the morning.”

“Are he and Quorra staying over?” Hannah asked, knowing that her mother had prepared two guest bedrooms plus her old room just incase it was needed.

It was Jett that gave her an answer. “Looks that way, she’s still out with Uncle Roy, don’t know what they’re talking about but it looks important, Sam’s upstairs waiting to see if he can beat my high score.” and with that Jett finished, flicked the dials and shut the door. “Night all.” Then he was off, stopping only to ruffle Hannah’s hair as he passed. 

“Night Jett.” She called after him, shaking her head and using her hands to sort out her hair again.

Her dad just sort of stood there for a moment as if trying to figure out if this was the sort of conversation he was allowed to be a part of or whether he should turn in as well.

“It’s alright, come take a seat.” her mother told him, motioning to the seat next to hers. Hannah nodded her agreement but slipped down from her chair to grab a glass of milk from the fridge. When she’d returned to the table her parents released each others hand and turned back to her.

“How much do you remember from when you went inside the Encom system sweetheart?” Lora asked her daughter, knowing she and Alan would know straight away what she meant. Hannah herself had thought she had been dreaming for years.

“Falling and landing somewhere that didn’t look quite right, then you were there - both of you but not you at the same time. Tron and Yori - they knew who I was when I told them my name and took me to the right place to send me home….. Honestly I thought I was dreaming - thought I’d imagined myself with the people from Uncle Kevin’s stories but in the end - when I knew enough I realised it was real.”

“And years later you wrote g.h.L.o.” Her dad added, smiling proudly at their daughter.

“Grid help Location orientation program. I only wrote it to stop people from getting lost… but then you offered me the money to go travelling during summer vacation before college if I embellished it, made it so it could find anything lost - as long as you owned or had access codes to the data, track it down and assign it back to the right place…. I’m still shocked you paid me and installed it.”

“Well it works.” Alan told her. “We use it all the time, never for it’s intended purpose but there aren’t many users who get lost inside the system… but it’s other functions work pretty well.” He didn’t tell his daughter he’d originally done it as a fail safe within the system, that it had worried him as much as it had her, he just hadn’t been able to figure out where to start.

Hannah shrugged. “Did they not question why a then 18 year old’s program was allowed in the system? One without any qualifications aside from a high school diploma? - who you then listed as the owner and primary user of the program?” Her tone was light and at the time she hadn’t questioned it. She knew how to program like most kids her age had known how to write - her parents had taught her from an early age, trying to encourage her to do more than just paint and she’d had to admit it had been fun to bring creativity into and from a computer… but it wasn’t her calling.

“No, no one did - not even with all of your updates since.” The last one having been a six months or so ago in line with the systems upgrade. She didn’t really do it for the money - although it had been useful in the early college years and establishing herself in the art community. Even now it was nice to know there were savings in the bank, art was fickle and even she understood the need to be sensible with her money. If she was honest Hannah really continued to improve g.h.L.o for her own peace of mind though.

“You haven’t told anyone else have you? I’ll never hear the end of it from Jett and everyone will suddenly wonder why I’m painting when I could be following in my parents footsteps.” She didn’t mean any offence by it and by her parents reaction it was clear they had understood her meaning.

Her mother laughed lightly at her daughters disgruntled expression. “Hannah, no one knows - not even your brother, we know why you did it… the reason we ask is that Sam asked us something.” She turned to her husband, wanting him to continue.

“He wants to ask Hanabi if he can copy and modify g.h.L.o for use in a system he’s working on, says he has some data he wants to recover and find within it. I’ve seen the specks and it looks as though it would only take a few small changes and it would work… but we didn’t want to tell him the program was yours so instead I said I’d speak to the programmer.”

“Who does he think Hanabi is?” Hannah asked, wondering why - even with that knowledge Sam hadn’t figured it out.

“Well with it being Japanese for firework he thinks we out sourced the work to our Japanese branch… which was originally the cover story behind your user name and I didn’t want to blow it.”

“Yeah, I’d forgotten about that.” She sighed, wanting very much to spend the next few days relaxing at home. “Does he want me to modify it?” 

“That’s up to you sweetheart, your dad’s right - doesn’t look too bad so we can do it if you wanted, or possibly Sam - he doesn’t seem to want people to know what he gets up to either.”

“The other option is that you could just tell him, chances are he’ll find out anyway.” Her Dad’s suggestion seemed like a good enough option but Hannah wasn’t quite comfortable with it.

She sighed. “He can use it, let me know what I need to change and I’ll do it…. I also get the feeling I can’t bill Encom this time…” her father sent a sympathetic look, he had known how she would feel about this. “Tell him Hanabi will get onto it as soon as they can.” 

“You sure?” Her father regarded her seriously.

“Yeah, my laptop’s upstairs in my room and I have the master copy on there, if you give me the information Sam gave you I’ll alter g.h.L.o, I just don’t feel like telling Sam who Hanabi is just yet.”

“He said it was pretty important so I’m sure he’ll sort something out in return.” Her dad reassured her.

Hannah shook her head. “No, either way it’s fine. I’ve never known Sam to ask for anything without having proper reason for it. Just… unless he really needs to know it’s me… don’t tell him.”

Lora looked to her husband, wondering if he was thinking along the same lines she was and tried to word it as best she could.

“There is one way he’d be able to figure it out.” But Hannah shook her head in response.

“He wouldn’t go back inside, if he had really wanted to he wouldn’t be asking me for my help.”

“Maybe sweetheart but there is still another laser he has access too, the Laser system from Encom was locked away after what happened to you but he could reach it."

"It wasn't already, locked away I mean?" Hannah asked, her parents had never really be happy to discuss the details before and she took any chance she could get to find out more about what had happened to her.

"it should have been, we never really did figure out exactly how that all happened. Not officially anyway.” Lora admitted, starting to look somwhat uncomfortable.

“Oh?” Hannah questioned but her parents didn’t look like they wanted to discuss it any further.

“Long story short they didn’t think you’d be able to get out… wanted to cause a little upset to destabilise your dad and Flynn.” her mother explained carefully, not wanting to let her daughter worry too much, the whole incident had been something close to terrifying. “I mention it because Sam has the system data stored in a separate place and he knows where the Laser is…. we can’t know for sure but he could reload what he needs in that system and work with g.h.L.o to find it.”

Hannah wondered what exactly he thought he could find in there, it didn’t sound like a good idea to venture into a system with the amount of damage it had apparently sustained. 

“When you said minor changes…” She didn’t look too convinced anymore.

“Think of it as putting off road tyres on a car, it’s just different terrain.” Alan suggested, he knew it wouldn’t be more than a days work for his daughter.

She was thinking about it, her parents could tell, working out at least some of the details in her head in much the same way her art formed in her mind before she put materials to paper. Hannah had been that way since she’d first learned to draw aged 2, frustrated and crying when her chalk drawing didn’t look right and practicing until it did. They were sure that whatever field she had put her mind to she would have succeeded but kept it to themselves, Hannah didn’t quite seem to know what she was capable of and although they had always tried to point her in the right direction - they left her to discover her potential by herself, it would come more naturally that way.

 

***

It was late but Hannah wanted to get started before she went to bed. Her room was almost the way she had left it years ago before college, although not filled with her old belongings and childhood toys. The pale lavender walls had several photo frames and pieces from her early water colour collections, her desk and notice board  sat in the almost second part of her room. She had always felt pretty lucky that her parents had let her have this room, it was large enough to have an area that seemed almost separated off around a small corner that had been her study come artists studio.

The window at that part of her room over looked the gardens which at that time of night was dark with only the trees moving across the lights from the grounds giving any indication of movement. She sat at her desk, smiling at her mom’s decorating skills, she had put up all of the postcards Hannah had sent home from her travels over the years on her notice board. There were a couple of frames, ones she’d carved herself during a course at college that held photo’s of her, Jett and their parents when they were younger and the other when they came to visit her in Italy.  She knew the cupboard built into her wardrobe in the main part of her bedroom held the rest of her childhood art projects, books and memories that she hand’t moved to her apartment and over the years her mom had changed the paintings and photo’s according to the seasons that Hannah visited home. There was really no need for her to do so, Hannah didn’t mind but she did appreciate he extra effort.

Her computer was up and running within a minute of her pressing the on button, time she spent looking at her easel and small cabinet of painting supplies, equipment and tools she’d picked up over the years. She had always thought of it as her mini artists kit, just incase she wanted to work on something whilst she was home…. she even had something in mind if she managed to get g.h.L.o finished on time.

Hannah turned back to her laptop, tapping away on the keys and logging in to her second secretive account on her computer - 花火 spelt in the Japanese Kanji she’d taken to using for her user name. She had always thought of it as hiding in plain sight, although even if someone had hold of her computer the name of the second account didn’t appear until she entered the password.

g.h.L.o was sat in it’s main file complete with all instructions and documentations, she had a back up secure at her apartment and knew her mother had another in the house somewhere but she always considered this her master copy. She selected and started the duplication process, wondering if only for a minute exactly what this looked like inside the machine. Finally before retiring for the evening she made sure it was set to the right location and place the instructions on her desk, notebook out and pens ready for what was going to be a busy next day.

Satisfied she headed to her en suite then shortly after for bed, her alarm was set for sometime after sunrise, so she could get it all started before breakfast and so she could shower before her brother, in his usual style used up all the hot water. 

She was curious as to what exactly Sam was going to use her program for but didn’t know exactly how she was supposed to ask… she supposed that was the compromise for keeping Hanabi a secret.

 

***

 

_It was dark and she had fallen very far although she didn’t hurt. She could hear a strange thrumming from the floor and it was oddly cold to the touch of her hand._

__

_“There is some one over there.” She heard a voice say._

__

_“Someone?” Another voice replied. “Is it a new program?” The voice was softer and Hannah opened her eyes to see who it was. All she could see was a blur of light in the distance._

__

_“No, I don’t think so, I’ve never seen a program that looked like that and there have been no new entries to the system.”_

__

_“Dad?” She asked, not knowing if her voice was carrying. The figures were moving closer to her and she closed her eyes again._

__

_“Then who is it then?” The softer voice spoke again, they were so close to her that they blocked out the light and she was suddenly afraid, especially when they moved towards her._

__

_A hand was placed on her shoulder and she started, half a scream forming as she opened her eyes. The figure moved to her side and she could finally see the woman with the softer voice._

__

_“m-m-mommy?” She asked, shaking, not sure who it really was, only that they looked and sounded like her mother._

__

_The woman with lights running all over her in blue seemed to look to the person who was at her side. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. Can I ask you your name?”_

__

_“H-Hannah, Mommy is that you?” The woman shook her head but smiled kindly, removing her helmet and letting her hair fall around her shoulders._

__

_“My name is Yori and the program sat next to you is Tron, we’re here to help you.” She explained sitting down on the ground and reaching out to the little user. Yori was a name she knew… she had heard it before somewhere and she knew she shouldn’t be afraid of that person._

__

_“Yori? Tron?” She was still afraid but looked at the man again, he kept his helmet on but smiled at her. He looked enough like her dad for her to reach out her hand to him, only she got half way there and stopped to look at herself._

__

_Her skin was white all the way down and instead of her dress she now wore what looked like a leotard and a small skirt just like the one she had worn for her brothers fancy dress party...but the same glowing blue lines that appeared on the others were all over her in curling lines and patterns. There was a triangle on her chest with lines running from it that looked like Yori’s._

__

_“Hannah?” Tron asked her and she looked up, eyes wide and confused. “Your father, Alan -1 is my user and your mother Lora Bradley is Yori’s, even though she’s been away for a long time she still maintains her -”_

__

_“Tron, I don’t think she needs to know that.” Yori turned back to the frightened little girl sat next to them. “Do you know how you ended up here?” she asked kindly._

__

_“No.” Hannah shook her head and reached out her hand instead to Yori, climbing onto her knees then standing as if trying to figure out if it was okay to do something._

__

_Yori seemed to think about the situation and it seemed as though something dawned on her. “Come here.” She spoke just like Hannah’s mother did and she allowed the little girl to step into her arms. She held on tightly and when she showed no signs of letting go, Yori stood with her, moving her to her hip._

__

_“I want to go home.” Hannah mumbled._

__

_“We’ll take you there.” Tron told her and she looked at him again, from her position in Yori’s uncertain arms she could finally see his face clearly and Hannah reached out to him._

__

_With a smile he took her from Yori, who picked up her helmet and re joined them._

__

_“You look like my daddy.” She told him and he smiled again._

__

_“Thank you Hannah, now would you like us to take you to the portal to get you home?”_

__

_She nodded but didn’t seem to settle, he could tell from the expression on her face she was still a little frightened._

__

_“Hannah?” He asked again. “Do you know Kevin Flynn?” It was the same tone in his voice her daddy used when he already knew she knew the answers._

__

_“Yes, he’s Uncle Kevin.” She told him proudly, always happy when she could answer as well as her daddy wanted._

__

_“Did Uncle Kevin ever tell you about the time he ended up in the Encom computer system where you are now?”_

__

_She nodded, the memory coming back to her. “He told me a bedtime story about fighting a big red spinny monster with Tram and Yuri who must be you two and a Ram.”_

__

_“A Ram?” Yori asked, close by their side and confused by how she had said it._

__

_“Yes, a sort of sheep I think.”_

__

_Yori laughed. “I don’t know what a sheep is but Ram is a program, just like we are.”_

__

_“Oh…” she looked sad for a moment then seemed to shrug it off. “Am I a program now?” She asked them._

__

_“No sweetheart, no, you’re a user just like Uncle Kevin when he came here, only smaller.” Yori reached her hand out and ran in through the little girls hair behind the circuitry. She couldn’t have known but it was her mother did to calm her down and it worked, Hannah settled down, finally leaning her head against Tron’s chest and let them both carry her along._

__

_***_

“There are scrambled eggs, fried eggs if you want them, sausages, bacon and toast.” Hannah told whoever had just entered the kitchen. She wasn’t sure exactly who it was from her position at the hob but she waved in the direction of the plates and breakfast being kept warm on hot plates.

“Thank you.” Quorra told her, heading quietly over to the large kitchen table and choosing some of everything laid out before her or at least it seemed that way to Hannah as she headed over to add the final sausages to the pile.

“There’s juice in the fridge and I can put a pot of coffee on if you want.” She offered, having not yet had a chance to talk to Quorra for anything other than a brief conversation.

“Thank you Hannah, would you like to join me? It seems you’ve made enough food for everyone here and I’d be happy to help if you need it.” She offerd, pushing her jet black hair behind her ear before sitting herself down.

“Sure, I think there’s enough here and the smell of fresh bacon normally rouses at least my brother from sleep, I think my parents will grab something a little later on, it is pretty early for a sunday. I’m just going to grab some orange juice, would you like some?”

Quorra nodded a little more enthusiastically than most people would, but Hannah had learned very quickly that Quorra wasn’t exactly any normal person. In the few short times they’d met the other woman had proven her intelligence to be far greater than some would presume but at the same time there were a lot of little things she didn’t know. A sheltered up brining would do that to a person so Hannah hadn’t paid it any mind.

“Here.” She placed the glass next to Quorra and sat herself down, grabbing sausages, eggs and popping bread in the toaster next to her.

“Roy said he’d sort something for breakfast a little later on, probably with your parents and Sam will be up shortly, your brother too more than likely.” She looked at her watch. “They’re going to work on Kevin Flynn’s bike today, it’s in your garage at the moment but he can’t seem to get it to start.” She wrinkled her nose in annoyance.

“Yeah, Jett mentioned helping him with something this morning, in that case if you want any more food you should take it before they arrive.”

“Just like the shower.” Quorra commented and Hannah chuckled, finishing her mouthful of egg and then moving her toast to her plate, there was more than one perk to having her own en suite bathroom. “I was wondering if I could ask you a favour.”

Hannah looked up at that surprised. “Sure.”

"I was wondering if you would take me shopping?” She looked somewhat nervous but Hannah smiled.

“I’m not sure if I’d be much help.” She said gesturing to her long flowing purple skirt and cheese cloth blue shirt, embroidered with tiny leaves around the base with long sleeves and an open button down top that stopped just above her chest. Most of her wardrobe flowed or moved as she walked and the colours had always made her look and feel like she’d stepped out of the sixties. In Italy she’d modified it to shorter items but the theme remained the same and it suited her long brown hair that even now was almost down to her back, but the natural curls always made it appear shorter than it was. At the moment it was tied back, only her bangs escaping.

“The way you dress suits you… that’s why I asked, Sam’s not been much help with this you see… I just want to find out what suits me and what I should wear. All of my clothes just seem to look like this.” The tight t shirt and jeans did look good but Hannah could understand what she wanted and she smiled.

“I’m free tomorrow so if you wanted we could head to the mall, I don’t have a bike but I can come pick you up in my car, unless you’re still here at that point.” she made it clear from her expression that none of her family minded the extra visitors for a day or two, for Hannah it felt like her earliest summers all over again, the feeling that all your friends were around and there were lots of people to talk to and spend time with.

“Either way that sounds great, thank you Hannah.” Then after another couple of mouthfuls added. “This is really good by the way”

“Thanks.” 

“Hey Hannah?” Her brother called, just loud enough to be heard from the doorway.

“Morning Jett, it’s on the table, juice is in the fridge.” She said without turing round, Sam followed just behind him.

“Thanks Hannah, I appreciate it.” He told her, grabbing a plate and heading straight for the bacon.

“No problem.” She and Quorra shared a look as the bountiful table of food was reduced to nothing.

Sam took up his seat next to Quorra who promptly turned to him.

“Hannah has agreed to take me shopping tomorrow.” She told him with a smile which almost made Hannah laugh, she looked so naive unless you caught the glint in her eye.

“Really?” Sam asked, glaring at his surrogate sister or cousin - he hand’t yet been able to work out which category she fell into, she mouthed an innocent ‘what?’ and continued eating.

 

***

g.h.L.o’s modifications were almost complete, Hannah ran the final few checks and waited for the code to finish compiling. She had gone over it three times so far and would be confident everything was fine as soon as the final results came back.

Her Dad’s analogy had been pretty accurate in then end and as the final compiling completed and the results came through, one at a time coming back with passes, Hannah’s eyes drifted to her canvas and she saw her painting come to life before her eyes as if it had already been done.

She smiled to herself, wanting to let it work it’s self out over dinner and if she had time she would start later, or tomorrow… as soon as she was ready.

She saved her modified g.h.L.o, naming it with her initials following as the title for the modification and put it on the usb stick her parents had provided her with, keeping a copy and saving one to disk to be put with the master of g.h.L.o her mother had.

It was ready and she hoped whatever Sam was up to would be made easier with this, she hadn’t told her parents before but Hannah had always felt helpless to make him feel any better, now it finally felt as if she could try… even if he never realised it was her work.

 

***

_Hannah pushed open the kitchen door having come home via the bike shed then through the garden. She shoved her keys back into the pocket in her bag then kicked of her converse leaving them in the normal place by the door. She knew her dad wouldn’t be back yet, his flight hand landed half an hour ago but the drive back would take close to an hour in the traffic outside._

__

_Her final exam of the sophomore year was over with and she’d headed home early, her friends had decided not to celebrate until the final German exam was over in two days time. She had another reason for leaving but hadn’t wanted to admit it._

__

_Today was her moms birthday and with her and Jett in exams and their dad not back till later on she hadn’t wanted to leave her on her own all day, she and Jett had left heir presents for her on her bedside table so she’d have something to open when she woke up but she had still wanted to be there. Jett had promised to come straight home from_

__

_Hannah had expected to find her mom in the kitchen but headed further into the house to find her, here was no sign of anywhere so she headed upstairs. She dropped her things in her room and headed down the hallway to her parents room._

__

_“Mom?” She asked, stepping into the doorway. Lora Bradley was sat at the end of her bed, Jett’s present lay at her side and the wrapping paper had been discarded on the floor next to the bed, but it wasn’t the set of her favourite books or the shopping vouchers that held her attention. Although it was clear that they had been opened, one of the books open half way across the rest of the pile._

__

_Lora was sat, hair falling to cover her face and looking intently at something in her lap. At the sound of her daughters voice she looked up and immediately regretted doing so._

__

_“Hannah, come on in.” She said, her voice cracking slightly. She wiped her face with the back of her free hand, the other holding the artists sketch book tight in her grasp. “I’m fine sweetheart I promise, come on in.”_

__

_Hannah stepped inside, suddenly very afraid and an old fear gripping her, one that lingered in the back of her mind whenever one of her parents was away from home._

__

_“Mom?” She asked, trying but failing to keep her voice steady._

__

_“It just took me by surprise is all.” Lora started to explain, reaching out her hand to her daughter and pulling her closer once she took hold._

__

_“What did?”_

__

_“Hannah?” Lora tugged on her arm and Hannah knelt on the floor, looking at waiting for her mother to say something… this was not what she came home early for, to see her mother crying, especially when she couldn’t understand why she was._

__

_“Is everything okay with Dad?” Hannah asked, having not really heard anything her mother had said so far. Her mind registered that her mom was crying but hadn’t gotten any further than that. “Has something happened to Jett? He was still in his exam when I left the school….”_

__

_Then Lora understood and her heart sank._

__

_“Hannah, Hannah look at me honey.” She did, eyes identical to Lora’s own waiting. “Your dad is fine, Jett is fine, I’m fine…. Hannah, it’s just they were so beautiful and I didn’t expect it, didn’t think you’d remembered….”_

__

_“What?”_

__

_“The paintings and the sketches, they’re beautiful Hannah, I’ve never really seen Tron and Yori… not outside of Flynn’s game artwork anyway and never like this.” She showed her daughter what they had been looking at. “It just took me by surprise, a wonderful one.”_

__

_Hannah felt relief and guilt all at the same time. “I never meant… mom I’m so sorry.” She told her, putting her arms around her mother, her earlier happiness at her exams being over long forgotten and replaced with a guilty sort of confusion._

__

_Lora shook her head against her daughter shoulder. “That’s not a bad thing, sit down honey.” And she did, her mom clearing a place for her at her side. “We didn’t think you remembered so we never brought it up, but these are so clear…”_

__

_At this Hannah smiled as she started to calm down from her earlier panic. “The older I’ve gotten the more I think I started to remember. But I realised it must have been as real as uncle Kevin’s story a few months ago. Tron, Yori, Ram, everything I saw there inside the system was so clear.”_

__

_Her mother turned the page to one of her favourites, she had spent the entire afternoon studying them after spending the morning looking through the books from Jett, but had always found herself coming back to this one painting and it’s partner on the page opposite._

__

_“Tron and Yori carried me, let me ride the solar sailor where we met Ram, he gave them information and they helped me stop someone from doing something bad… I don’t remember all of it but I do remember that.”_

__

_The painting had little Hannah held in Tron’s arms, Yori running her hand through Hannah’s hair with Ram sat on the floor of the sailor smiling at them, she’d even put Jett in the picture, he was talking to Ram about something or other. The sky was made of beautiful blended pastel hues with bands of light passing through the sailor, the wings were gossamer thin and the detail right down to their faces and circuitry although not exact gave the feeling of these people being alive and real. It was Hannah and Jett that stood out, whether on purpose or accidental, or maybe it was just because she was their mother that Lora thought so._

__

_“Would you mind if we framed these?” She asked, feeling her eyes brim with tears again._

__

_“You could… but I have something else that might work better… it’s just not finished yet.” Hannah suddenly looked very shy. “I was going to save it until your party at the weekend but I could show you now?”_

__

_Lora nodded. “Alright.”_

__

_They stood and Hannah lead her mom to her room, nervous and picking at her nail varnish, it had been half gone by the end of her exam anyway but her habit still remained to calm her down._

__

_“Now it’s not finished yet… the second one at least so you’ll have to wait until the weekend.” Her exams had gotten in the way and she hadn’t been able to finish them in time._

__

_“Hannah it’s fine, really.”_

__

_She opened the door to her room and lead her mother to the second area of her room and stood back, the painting from the sketch book was on a large canvas on the floor leaning against the wall and another canvas sat on the easel, paint trays covered in damp cloths lay around the sheets lining the floor along with paper rough sketches and composition notes._

__

_When Lora looked at the painting she took a deep breath to stop any tears that threatened to fall. The second painting was the second sketch. Hannah was on her mothers hip in this one, still aged three and Alan was stood next to them, Jett holding onto his hand. She didn’t recognise where it was, but for all she knew it could have been anywhere. In the background were Flynn and Jordan with Sam and Roy talking over something or another. It had the same dreamlike quality as the first but still looked just as real, she couldn’t tell where exactly it wasn’t finished but trusted Hannah when she said so._

__

_“Thank you Hannah.” Was all Lora managed to say, sliding an arm around her daughters shoulder and biting her lip to stem tears that had threatened to fall._

__

_“Happy Birthday Mom.” Hannah told her doing the same._

__

_***_

Dinner had been something Hannah settled down to readily and this evening they were in the dining room, next to the kitchen with large floor to ceiling windows that let the light pour in late into the night. Usually they would eat in the kitchen but given they were all home plus Roy, Quorra and Sam they had definitely needed the space.

Roy had been happier to join in conversation sat between Quorra and Hannah, with Sam and Jett opposite them at the table. The conversation was flowing easily enough but the spaces that had always been there still remained, left for people who were no longer with them.

Sam didn’t ignore or fight them anymore, Hannah didn’t talk over them and her parents didn’t make excuses. Jett had never tried to smooth it over so in that respect he didn’t need to change but Roy was different. He didn’t shrink away from them, nothing overt but some of his timidness seemed to have left him, he seemed more relaxed.

“I was wondering Hannah.” Quorra started, leaning over Roy a little to talk to her. “Would your mother like to join us tomorrow?” She hadn’t thought of it until she had learned of Lora’s love of shoes. Quorra had to admit she didn’t understand it but it seemed related to her new experiences in the user world and she wanted to learn from the best.

“Probably, I’ll ask.” Her mom was sat next but one along the table with her Dad in between. “Mom do you want to come shopping with me and Quorra tomorrow? To help her find a new wardrobe.” She didn’t miss the look both Sam and her brother sent her and she rolled her eyes very pointedly in their direction, sometimes they still acted like teenage boys.

“Sure, sounds good to me.” 

“Ah Lora, don’t you have something else planned tomorrow, something you need to do?” Alan asked her, no one missing the panicked edge to his voice. For all his wife’s sensibilities she could burn a whole through his credit card in less than 4 hours and even with their income it took a while to recover from.

“Don’t sweat it Alan, this one’s on me.” Sam told him from across the table. “Q’s been talking about this on and off all afternoon and although I’m pretty happy with her current choices it doesn’t hurt to give the girls a day out.” He could almost see Alan’s blood pressure falling.

“Thank you Sam.” It sounded heartfelt which made Hannah chuckle, noticing along with Quorra the glint in her mothers eyes.

 

***

Her parents were in the library when Hannah eventually found them. Sam, Quorra, Jett and Roy were in the large front room watching a movie and the rest of the house was empty. She hadn’t expected them to be in there but then she didn’t know how often they’d found themselves in there since she and her brother left home.

“Mom, dad, can I come in?” She asked from the doorway, not wanting to interrupt them.

“Sure.” her dad told her waving with his hand and gesturing for her to take a seat In one of the comfy chairs dotted around the room. She shut the door behind her and sat on the chair almost directly opposite to her parents. It was large enough for her to tuck her legs up at her side and snuggled in. 

“It’s finished.” She told them, handing her dad the usb stick they had given her earlier as well as the back up disk she wanted her parents to keep. “It should work, I’ve done everything I can to make sure g.h.L.o’s compatible and even made a couple of other adjustments I think might help…. it’s the best I can do and it’s pretty robust, should be able to handle whatever Sam throws at it. I can’t know for certain though.”

Alan looked at his daughter with a mixture of pride and approval on his face and when Hannah looked to her mother she saw much the same.

“What?” She asked, normally this was reserved for when they saw her art shows or when she had graduated.

“This will mean a lot to Sam and it means a lot to us.” Alan told her. “I know you have your own reasons for writing g.h.L.o and that you probably won’t write another program either but that doesn’t matter.”

“Hannah, Sam only asked for g.h.L.o because he couldn’t do it himself, no one has ever thought to write what you wrote.” Lora continued.

“It’s a modified search engine that also reconfigures data and tracks down anything lost in the system.” She told them wondering why they were making such a big deal of this all of a sudden.

“It’s more than that and it always has been.” Her mother said again.

“Mom…” Hannah was really starting to feel uncomfortable.

“Hannah, g.h.L.o’s original purpose still stands - not just to safeguard user but to protect Tron, Yori and Ram.” Alan started to explain. “All three are safe and working in the main Encom system but there’s a possibility another version of Tron and Yori are in the system Sam’s trying to gather data from. He has no idea what happened to Yori but there are no records or proof of her being deleted or damaged and Tron was last seen falling into an unknown part of the grid.”

“Sam may have failed to mention that.” Hannah whispered, loud enough at least for her parents to hear.

“Kevin asked me for a copy of Yori about the same time he asked your dad for Tron. I agreed but he never said anything afterwards and we didn’t know where the system was or why he needed them. We didn’t know they were in his digital frontier, we didn’t know and we never got the chance to ask.”

“So you think Sam is looking for Tron and Yori?” She asked, strangely thankful that she hadn’t known this to start with, it would have been a little too much pressure. She wanted to know why Ram hadn’t been put on his new grid but Hannah knew better than to ask that, Kevin Flynn had a plan and would have known what he was doing… or more likely Roy didn’t want him messing with his best program again.

“He hasn’t said exactly but he hinted at it when he gave me the notes yesterday.” He sighed. “We’re sorry Hannah, we should have said something.”

She shook her head. “I understand and it’s fine, g.h.L.o’s directives and primary operations are still intact, I just boosted them… if that’s what Sam want’s to do I’m sure g.h.L.o’s capable but he must want to reconfigure data as well, he specifically requested I make modifications related to that.”

“Could g.h.L.o reconfigure a program?” Lora asked in all seriousness. 

“I..I don’t know, it’s not like putting a file back together...well it is but there’s much more to it than just that. I’ve never tried.” She furrowed her brows in thought. “Tron can though can’t he?” She was aware she referred to Tron like she would a person but to her he was - g.h.L.o was too… she just never felt comfortable calling her ‘she’ in front of anyone.

“It’s true that he has the ability to do that yes, but it depends how bad the damage to the code is.” Her father explained.

“I’m pretty sure g.h.L.o can find whatever or who ever Sam is looking for… I don’t know if it’s possible for them to be put back together though… if g.h.L.o can find Tron first then maybe, it’s worth a try but there’s nothing more I’d be able to put in the coding to help with that. It’s a little out of my depth.” It was a lot more than just a little bit but her parents would already know that.

“I put a file in with g.h.L.o, the usual read me. It’ll tell Sam the real primary objectives in full, he must know some of them already or he wouldn’t have asked you. There’s still nothing that will point directly to me… but if he comes asking I’ll tell him.” She sighed but didn’t look unhappy. “It struck me that not knowing the primary objectives might cause more than a few problems, it doesn’t sound as though there is a user left in the system for g.h.L.o to rescue but he’ll needs to know the rest anyway.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine with that, I suspect he’s already realised what the directives are and it’s easy to explain away if you change your mind.” Alan reassured his now rather nervous looking daughter.

“I’ll hand it over to Sam in a few days, he hasn’t said it’s anything urgent so it should be fine and Hannah?”

“Hmm?” 

“Thank you, we know how you feel about g.h.L.o and Sam will take good care of her.” 

Hannah shot her father a look, but her mother just smiled and shook her head.

“It’s okay, I’m glad I could do it, but I’d like to get back to my painting. I have an idea for something.” She uncurled her legs from beside her and wiggled her toes getting ready to stand.

“Something for your gallery?” Lora asked.

Hannah bit her lip and shrugged. “Maybe, I’m not sure yet, I’ll see… I’ll let you see it when it’s done don’t worry.” She told them and now stood Hannah walked over to her parents, bending to hug each of them in turn. “Night mom, night dad.” Her mother held her hand and squeezed in reassurance and Hannah held on that little bit tighter for a moment before releasing them and leaving the room.

Hannah popped into the front room to say her goodnights to Jett and the others before heading upstairs and she got changed, slipped into one of her older dresses that wouldn’t be ruined by a little paint or whatever else she used. Hannah went straight for her pencils, sliding the draw open and finding the first one that came to hand. She would normally sketch it out first, figure out the angles and composition but this idea had been in her mind for long enough she’d just never had the confidence before and line by line, smudge by smudge Hannah sketched g.h.L.o. Red hair short at the front and falling longer at the back, curved but capable form with her disk in her hand… warrior and protector. Hannah drew her how she knew she’d appear in the new system, circuitry blue and standing out against the dark of her form. 

To finish would take her days but there was another painting in her apartment, in her closet of all places with it’s companion, the original g.h.L.o. It would belong in her gallery, just her personal one… half filled with clothes half covered with paintings large and small of many things over the years, friends, family, places and dreams. 

 

***

__

 

_  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It would of course be awesome to know what people think of this, love it or hate it I don't mind knowing what you think.


	3. Lora Bradley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lora Bradley's chapter.  
> Just to let anyone know who is reading this Alan's is next followed by Roy's.

**_Lora Bradley_**

 

_“Hannah?”  She called, not able to understand how her daughter had ended up in the Encom secure basement… or how someone had known to send her a message on her pager. Given that she was no longer listed on the Encom directory, aside from as Alan’s emergency contact, meant that someone had purposely wanted her to find her daughter, or at least go looking for her._

__

_She took no chances as she bolted down there, too filled with adrenalin to wait for the second secure elevator to the basement she had run down the second set of stairs. She stopped before she entered the room to catch her breath if nothing else, fighting the urge to go in in a blazing fury because the logical part of her mind was trying to tell her something. There was something she had to do first._

__

_With shaking hands she grabbed the phone next to the room, surprised it was still working… then again not many mothers would stop long enough to make sure the problem didn’t get any worse.… she almost hadn’t but no other parent was likely to find themselves in this situation and she was no use to her daughter inside the computer._

__

_“Alan?” She asked as soon as she heard the phone pick up._

__

_“Lora? Where are you?” He sounded confused and had sensed the panic in her voice._

__

_“Alan you have to monitor the power to the basement and two floors on either end.”_

__

_“Why?”_

__

_“I don’t have time to explain, just make sure the moment the power spikes you send security down there and log onto the system please.”_

__

_“Lora?” She could hear him stand and pace the room._

__

_“Alan, I don’t have time to explain any further… log onto the computer, have Tron monitor anything coming into the system. Please just trust me.”_

__

_“You’re going to have to explain this to me when whatever it is is over.” He sounded defeated but he listened and did what she asked. She put the phone down before he could argue further and unlocked the door, with her forth unofficial master swipe key …. Alan, Kevin and Roy held the other three and they had agreed when she left it would be better for someone they trusted to be able to over ride things if need be. Lora was now glad she’d never pointed out what a stupid idea that had been with her all the way in Washington._

__

_The doors slid open almost instantly despite how long it felt and she went to run behind the laser, knowing it hadn’t been moved from it’s position bolted down on the floor and not expecting anyone else to be in the room. She stopped in her tracks when she realised Hannah was on the floor underneath the laser beam, sleeping with her hair flowing across the floor like spun gold in the dimly lit room. She was in her favourite dress and shoes, the ones she had been wearing whilst they were waiting for her father._

__

_… Hannah had only been alone for a minute in her Dad’s locked office…_

__

_Lora went as close as she dared, ducking under the view of the laser._

__

_“Hannah?” She called, suppressing the panic in her voice. Her daughter stirred but didn’t wake, asleep on her back with her hand clenched into a fist and murmuring through her dreams._

_Lora searched for a control panel, looking back to her daughter every second or so, noticing the rewiring and extra power packs littered around the room. The only screen she could find was a screen on the floor balanced on top of 3 of the packs, there was no keyboard… but there was a message._

__

Priority one message for Lora Bradley.

 

Hannah is safe, we found her and took her to the portal to return her to your world.

 

We have sent the details of the user who took her to Alan-1. 

 

The laser cannot be reactivated without highest level authorisation from Alan-1 or Flynn.

 

Tron, Yori

 

_Lora only really took in ‘Hannah is safe’ and ‘cannot be reactivated’ before almost sliding across the basement floor and reaching her daughters side. She scooped her daughter up in her arms and moved them both out of view of the laser._

__

_Not knowing whether to laugh or cry she held her little girl close to her, hand supporting her head and breathing in the scent of the strawberry shampoo her grandmother had bought her for christmas. Hannah stirred but hadn’t woken, muttering through her dreams the names of her rescuers._

__

_Lora managed the walk out of the room, legs shaking from the loss of adrenaline and not the small weight of her daughter and she slid down the wall next to the phone, taking it with her as she reached the floor._

__

_One by one she dialled the number for Alan’s office but he spoke before she could finish and in her current state of mind it took a minute or so to work out why._

__

_“Lora, I got their message… Tron and Yori’s… Lora?” But she just stared at him, dropping the phone and letting it bounce next to her. “Lora?” He was kneeling down now, eyes level with hers and finally she spoke._

__

_“She’s safe.” She managed before Alan pulled them both to him, careful not to startle Hannah but wanting to reassure them both all the same. It was an awkward position there on the floor but it didn’t matter. Lora finally let herself relax in her husbands embrace with the sound of Hannah’s constant yet gentle breathing telling her that things would be okay now. “Is Jett still with Kevin and Sam?” She asked, voice muffled against her husbands shoulder._

__

_“Yeah, I called them as soon as I got the message, he’s fine, playing something or another with Sam and Kevin from what Kevin told me.”_

__

_“Good.” Was all she managed, relief starting to sink in that both of her children were safe from harm._

__

_“Come on, we should get back up stairs, security have who did this, Roy checked with them… I didn’t stick around for the details though.” Alan pulled his wife to her feet, careful to make sure Hannah didn’t fall._

__

_“How?”_

__

_“I don’t know, wouldn’t mind betting that Tron had something to do with this.”  He made sure to put his arm around his wife, supporting her as they headed along the corridor to the elevator, she was still shaking and clearly unwilling to let go of Hannah._

__

_“Exactly what upgrades have you been making to Tron?” She asked, stepping into the elevator and leaning into Alan’s warmth._

__

_“Not enough for him to be able to do this, it would need a user to authorise it and the only user aware of what was happening is currently asleep in her mothers arms.” Lora looked to her daughter then back to Alan._

__

_“Be serious.” She chastised, this wasn’t exactly the time for humour._

__

_“I am being, we found an authorisation code - a new one belonging to a new user to the Encom system, one that we’ve never seen registered before.”_

__

_“And who was it?” She asked, smoothing her daughters hair._

__

_“Hanabi, H-a-n-a-b-i.”_

__

_“Alan….” Lora didn’t know what to say, just that she wanted to respond._

__

_“I don’t know exactly how she did it but it had to be her, no one else would have been able to, not in the way it’s been done.”_

__

_“What are you going to do with the account?” She asked as the elevator came to a stop and they stepped out into Encom’s main lobby. Their footsteps echoing off the walls as they crossed to the other side and the main elevators in the building._

__

_“I’m going to leave it, I see no harm in it, I’ll assign it to my account for now, make sure no one else can access or discover it.”_

__

_“For now?”  She asked just as the doors opened and they began the ascent to his office where Roy would be waiting for them._

__

_“Just incase she ever needs it in the future.”  He looked to Lora and saw the expression on her face. “What? You never know.”_

__

_***_

Lora hadn’t realised how tired she was until her head hit the pillow, she felt the right side of the bed dip a few moments later and knew without opening her eyes that Alan had joined her. She managed to role onto her side to be facing him before she gave up movement all together.

 

Alan chuckled leaning over her and stretching to reach the light on her bedside table, knowing that she had never been able to sleep with the light on but more often than not didn’t have quite enough energy to flick the switch before getting into bed.

 

When he rolled over back onto his side of the bed she moved with him, wanting to be just that little bit closer that night. Alan didn’t say anything, used to waking up this way at some point or another in the night. Their months of long distance marriage when Jett had still been a baby and before Hannah was born seemed to have had lasting and not in the least bit unpleasant side effects.

 

“I gave Hannah the notes, she seems okay with it, seems confident it’ll be done by tomorrow evening.” Alan spoke quietly and she enjoyed the low sound, his distinct voice that she would recognise anywhere cutting through the silence of the room.

 

“Where are the others?” She mumbled, just wanting to make sure everyone is alright.

 

“Jett did a final sweep of the house and gardens with Sam, Quorra and Roy are still talking in one of the spare rooms, Sam was heading off to the other and everyone else has gone home - Jett locked the gate once he was sure.” He made reference to the main entrance to the house, he had always thought it best - given their jobs and his position within Encom to keep their main home as safe as possible and the only person who seemed to take it more seriously was their son. 

 

“Are they staying for breakfast?” and Alan laughed again, the soft rumble in his throat she was so familiar with erupting just above her ear.

 

“I think so but Hannah says she’s got it covered, said she’ll be up early to get started, she’s already copying g.h.L.o so she can start work as soon as she gets up and breakfast will be her first break of the day.”

 

“Sounds like Hannah.” her husband hummed his agreement.

 

They fell into a comfortable silence, Alan with his arms around his wife and Lora savouring the warmth and comfort as she drifted off to sleep.

 

***

_“Alan?” She hadn’t meant to scare him by coming in so late but she also hadn’t wanted to worry him by telling him they needed to talk about something important. Somewhere along the way sneaking back home from Washington at 11 at night had seemed like a good idea at the time._

__

_“Lora?”  He sounded terrible… as much as she hated to admit it he did. She suppressed the guilt she would otherwise have felt, Alan had been, after all very insistent she took the job in the first place._

__

_“Hi, I’ve got the weekend and the early part of next week free so I thought I’d come home, see you and Jett.” He stepped into the hallway, baby monitor in hand incase their 18 month old son woke from his sleep._

__

_“You could have called, I’d have met you at the airport.” He pulled her into his arms and she went willingly. This and Jett were the things she missed the most and she held on tighter than perhaps she normally would, if Alan noticed he didn’t say anything and for that she was grateful._

__

_“It’s alright, I took a cab and I didn’t want to disturb Jett.” She spoke into his shoulder, keeping her voice as low as possible and holding on long enough to calm her nerves. She’d come back to tell him something after all._

__

_“He’s been sleeping really well recently, he was down at seven and will probably sleep through till morning.” He kissed her hair and she nuzzled against his shirt, it had been a month since she had last been home and it was altogether too long._

__

_“Good.” She could see the staircase leading to his room but didn’t want to disturb him and she was sure soon enough that Alan would sense she was hiding something once he got over the excitement of seeing her home. “Can we sit down?” She asked, moving back just far enough to see his face._

__

_“Sure.” He let go but took her hand, leading her through to the front room and picking up his work folders from the couch to dump them on the coffee table. She flopped down next to him and made a point not to let go of his hand, this he noticed. “Lora?”_

__

_She sunk father into the couch but made sure to be facing him, not smiling exactly and not grimacing either. “It’s good news I promise.” but Alan raised his eyebrows at her tone and she reasoned that coming home in the middle of the night was once again making this look much worse than it actually was. “No, it really is, listen Alan, how do I put this.”_

__

_“As long as you tell me what it is I don’t mind.” He looked so concerned it was sort of endearing and she reached her free hand to cup his face for a moment, letting her fingers linger._

__

_“We haven’t exactly been careful since last September and even less so the last few times I’ve been home.” She started, looking at him as she spoke and wanting to see the exact moment he figured it out. “And well at some point along the line this was bound to happen.” There it was, a spark flashed in his eyes and past the brief moment of shock a smile was threatening to form on his face but he didn’t say anything incase he was wrong and Lora suspected he wanted to hear her say it. “I’ve been feeling like crap the last two weeks and I missed my period, I’d already figured it out but I went to see the doctor all the same.”_

__

_He was nodding, holding her hand tighter and waiting, still waiting._

__

_“I’m pregnant Alan, we’re going to have another baby.” Now she was smiling, just like he was and he moved so quickly she didn’t know what was happening until she was in his arms again._

__

_“Oh Lora that’s fantastic news!” He pulled away again and he was smiling from ear to ear. “When?”_

__

_“November 14th.” She told him and watched him do the math in his head, nodding in agreement and slight embarrassment as he worked it out the same way she had. “But Alan, we should probably keep this quiet for a while, just to, you know.”_

__

_He understood and he smiled at her, suddenly much more awake and looking much better than he had when she’d first come in. He bent his head and kissed her, arms wrapped around her as the news sank in._

__

_“What did work say?” Alan moved to leaned back against the couch and she followed, this time resting in the crook of his shoulder with his arm around her._

__

_“I’ve only told the lead scientist and she wasn’t too thrilled at first. I told you what she had said when I’d joined about me already having a family… but they had said they needed my expertise and for the last six months things have been fine... I may have lied to her a little though when I said this wasn’t planned.”_

__

_“It wasn’t.” Alan commented and Lora glared. “Okay it wasn’t not planned either… wasn’t expected might be more accurate.”_

__

_“Anyway.” He kissed her hair again and rubbed his hand along her arm in silent apology. “I  explained that it was already really hard on all of us with me in Washington and I didn’t know what I was going to do once the baby was born… even before that actually. She asked me to let her think about it and got back to me yesterday.”_

__

_When Lora was quiet for maybe a little too long Alan spoke up. “You know, I can support us all if need be.”_

__

_“I know.” She told him, finding his free hand and lacing her fingers with his._

__

_“But you love your work.” His voice was soft, comforting and she let it wash over her, whatever she decided he would make it happen. Just like he’d always done._

__

_“I do… but as much as a cliché as this is, I love you, Jett and the baby more. Once I made that clear they came up with a compromise.”_

__

_“Oh.” She craned her neck up to look at him._

__

_“I’ll stay for the next two months, finish my work on the current experiments then I can come home, turns out they’ve decided to work with the local university here and they need someone from the company to come over and work out here and since I already do….”_

__

_“Sounds pretty convenient.” She could tell from his tone that he wasn’t buying it._

__

_“From what I gather they need me more than I thought, I’m pretty sure there is no need for anyone from the company to be at the university and it looks more like a data analysis job than anything else but I accepted it… never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.”  What she didn’t tell him was that if there hadn’t been another job she’d have come straight home, resigned her post and settled back to life in california. Asked her ten years before and she would have sworn off anything that took her away from her career… she had been so closed minded back then, life with Alan had given her more to look forwards to than her work as a scientist ever could._

__

_“But are you really going to be okay though, two months is still a long time and in your-” Lora stopped him with her finger pressed firmly on his lips._

__

_“Don’t say it, I know what you’re going to say, I’ve literally been imagining it for the whole flight and all of yesterday evening. I will be fine, I can’t promise I’ll be able to come back here in the meantime but you and Jett can visit but not one word.”  Which was her way of giving him the permission he clearly wanted to come and stay with her._

__

_“I don’t think I’m going to argue.” He said when she at last removed her finger. “Not when you come home and tell me we’re having another baby, but Lora, I am serious, if you need anything at all you call me.”_

__

_She nodded. “Alright, now I’d like to see Jett then head to bed.” She changed the subject before he could say anything else on the matter and they both stood, heading slowly and quietly up the stairs to their sons room._

__

_***_

 

She pushed open the door to her daughters room, closing it behind her with her foot and walking through the room until she found Hannah, eyes focused on her laptop and hands working so fast on the keyboard Lora felt as though, just for a moment she was watching a younger version of herself at work.

 

“As requested, one iced lemon tea.” She announced, waiting for Hannah to finish whatever part of the code she was working on.

 

“Thanks mom, take a seat.” She gestured without looking at her to the comfy chair next to her desk. 

 

Lora moved to sit down, smiling at her daughter and happy enough to wait until she was finished. She had thought that she was used to their children having grown up and left the house to make their own way in life but it was moments like this when she realised she wasn’t.

 

When Jett had left it had been hard enough but Hannah seemed to soften the blow when she left two years  later with her calls and letters and sometimes surprise visits home. Lora had been unbelieving and happy when she had chosen to move back to california and bought a flat not too far from where they lived, Alan had never admitted as much to her but he had a feeling he had paid for most of the apartment. Lora hadn’t ever asked, not really minding. They had the money to help their children and they in turn had both proved they could live their own lives and be responsible with what they had.

 

Hannah by her own admittance had said she hadn’t expected to buy it - simply wanted to rent it and that, for Lora was good enough.

 

Her moved to Italy for two years had been hard but her daughter had come into herself as an artist and in some respects a person. It had also been nice, by all accounts for an excuse to have their extended summer holidays with their daughter in europe and if she decided to spend a week or two shopping in Milan then it was a nice bonus. Hannah had chastised her for it on many occasions but had never complained when Lora had taken her along on a Alan sponsored shopping spree. Jett had also made an effort to join them and Hannah had knocked the wind out of him at the airport, surprised and happy that her older brother had come to see her.

 

“Sorry Mom, I think I’m almost there, just wanted to finish the code and run it through the compiler, seems to be fine so far but it’s kinda awkward in places.”

 

“How so?”

 

“I feel as though I’m teaching g.h.L.o to see in the dark and use off road vehicles all at the same time… I wish I could test it in the system but even then I don’t see what good it will do.” She copied a back up to a usb stick, closed her laptop and turned her chair around, reaching for the glass her mother was holding. “what’s everyone else doing?”

 

“Sam and Jett are out with his bike, your dad’s talking with Roy and last I saw Quorra she was reading her way through the rest of the library she didn’t quite get to last time.” Lora told her, knowing her daughter didn’t want her solitude to look suspicious.

 

Hannah took a long sip of her iced tea, ice cubes clinking against the sides of the glass as she did. “Sounds like no one has missed me so far, I should be done by dinner this evening.” She took a deep breath and sat back in her chair, finally looking as though she was taking a proper break.

 

“What time did you get up?” Lora asked her and Hannah smiled an embarrassed and slightly guilty smile.

 

“Five thirty, I was showered and working on this by six this morning.” She took a long drink of her tea and her mother shook her head.

 

“You really didn’t have to sweetheart.” She made sure to look her daughter right in the eye.

 

“I know, both you and dad keep telling me that but I just want it done and I want to do it properly… I’m not going to cut corners but I also don’t want it to take over my time here, this is supposed to be my week off to refresh my batteries, so the plan is to finish g.h.L.o for Sam and enjoy relaxing here before heading home and back to work.” Hannah explained, finishing her drink and placing the empty glass on the floor where it would be safely away from her laptop.

 

When she looked up again her mother was smiling at her, even laughing a little bit.

 

“What?” She asked. “Mom?” But Lora shook her head and put her hand over her mouth.

 

“It’s nothing sweetheart.” She mumbled before regaining her composure. “It’s just that sometimes it’s like watching myself.”

 

“Aside from the fact that I don’t throw my clothes and belongings all over the place, I think I’ll take that as a complement.” Hannah was smiling underneath her retort and Lora realised she must have heard someone say that to her before.

 

***

_Watching Hannah at the computer was fascinating, Lora had started her on something really simple and she had taken to it like a duck to water. It had been hard to convince her to try it, her daughter had made it clear she’d rather draw than program - said it didn’t sound like fun and to Lora that had sounded too much like a challenge to pass up on._

__

_Jett had been more enthusiastic, wanting to make programs to do his homework for him and generally come up with ideas for things that made no sense to anyone but a young boy. Lora had taught him the basics then let him get on with it, he’d come to her or Alan if he had any questions._

__

_She knew they were lucky, with a total of three computers in the house at a time when there were still not common place and she had been insistent that her children learn how to use them and use them well. Kevin had been right about his digital frontier… she just wished he’d hurry home and show his Son along with the rest of them the way forwards._

__

_Hannah seemed to want to see what exactly she could do, once Lora had showed her some of the more flashy and dare she say ‘creative’ things you could do with a computer Hannah had been happy to try her hand at it… first making the program “Hello World” then moving onwards. At five she was already much better at it than Lora had been in her teenage years but then that wasn’t surprising, technology moved fast but children were always faster at picking it up._

__

_“Lora?” Alan called her name softly from the office door and she tuned, Hannah unaware of her fathers presence as she worked at something in her code. She stepped out of the office and quietly shut the door._

__

_“Everything okay?” She asked, knowing that these days not much at Encom classed as okay._

__

_“Work is better than it has been.” He told her so she knew not to worry about that. “I saw Roy today.” that made her closed her eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again._

__

_“How is he holding up?”_

__

_“Not well to be honest with you, today he just seemed worse than he has been for a while.”_

__

_Roy had taken in pretty hard and at the time Lora had known better than to ask prying questions but if the last year had taught them anything it had been that Flynn had to be alive and out there somewhere. It was becoming more and more obvious that he had more to live for than to ever leave. Which was more than he could say for their friend, he had lost his closest friend and his job in little over a year._

__

_“We should invite him over, Jett will want to play the next game or another with him and Hannah will show him her pictures…. invite Sam over too… he needs to know there are still people that care and I can’t think of anything else that would help.” In truth she didn’t even really know if that would do any good either but it was worth a try, at the very least the two boys would be distracted by the games console in the den._

__

_“I was hoping you were going to say that.” Alan told her and she stepped closer, just enough to bring her arms around him and hold him close. She wouldn’t say it out loud but she suspected Alan needed it too, maybe more than she did. He didn’t want to loose another friend and neither did she but she hated all of the sadness, couldn’t comprehend the why or the how of Kevin's disappearance. So she held him, feeling his arms tighten around her’s in return and for a long while they just stood there, Alan with his face buried in Lora’s hair and Lora never loosening her hold._

__

***

 

They had waited until later that week, g.h.L.o’s upgraded form staying safely in her bedside table, the copy for Sam anyway. Lora had met her husband during his lunch hour on his half day, she’d come from coffee with Roy and felt as though she could finally stop worrying about him, well at least not nearly as much as she had been.

 

“Where’s Sam?” She asked, setting down her bag on the sofa and throwing her jacket on top of it, Alan had long since stopped reminding her that there were pegs and hangers along the wall of his office.

 

“He’ll be along in a minute, just finishing off something or another.” He told her, standing and moving to the front of his desk to pull Lora into a hug.

 

“Did you tell him what this was about?” She asked, releasing him and sitting next to her bag.

 

“Ah, no, not exactly but as far as he’s concerned our Japanese division is pretty proficient so he probably won’t be surprised to have it so soon.” 

 

Lora nodded and opened the front pocket, handing Alan g.h.L.o, meeting his eyes as she did.

 

“It’ll be fine.” He reassured her. “Sam has Quorra and even if he wanted to run headlong into some scheme she would be there to stop him.” Or at least that was what he hoped.

 

The door opened before either could say anything else and Sam Flynn breezed in, Alan had told him not to bother knocking. He once again wore another of his Flynn lives t shirts and Lora chuckled.

 

“I think they get the message.” She told him with a smile, Sam shook his head and replied in jest.

 

“It’s worth it just to make sure they know I’m not going anywhere, double meanings and all that.” Todays choice was navy blue and he’d long since discarded his jacket, still didn’t like the loss of freedom of movement in his arms.

 

“Looks good, let me know if you run out of colours.” She told him and he smiled, almost like his father but more like his six year old self being told he and Jett could help themselves to the secret stash of ice cream.

 

Alan looked at his ward then back to his wife. “You don’t mind Lora being present for this do you?” He asked.

 

“No, as far as I know you signed the waver years ago to be entitled to certain information and company knowledge because of your research on the laser…. this isn’t strictly related to that but my dad made sure to word that pretty well.” Sam looked between them to make his point and Lora nodded, amused but not surprised when Alan had come home with a new all access key card for her the day before.

 

“Right well good, hanabi got back to me this morning, g.h.L.o is finished and ready to go, they did warn that you should probably read the updated instructions and guidelines though, I’ve only skimmed them but they seem important.” Alan advised, handing over the program to Sam.

 

“Thanks Alan, really.” He looked down at the USB pen and held it firm in his hand. “That’s one hell of a contract.” Alan shrugged.

 

“To be honest it was a lot faster than I expected but hanabi has always been one to get on with something.”

 

“Think I could convince them to move to this branch? Pay rise, office?” He asked, clearly happy to have gotten what he wanted but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry.

 

“Ah, I can ask but I’m almost certain they’d decline, this isn’t really their thing.”

 

“Fair enough. If I have any questions…” He left it open for Alan to answer without really phrasing It as such, Lora suppressed a giggle.

 

“Ask and I’ll pass them along, it would be easier for you to have their information and I realise that but I asked them and they declined, but I’ll pass on any comments you have for them.” Alan reassured, making sure never to lie, that was what was important.

 

“No, it’s fine - I really can understand the need for privacy, speaking of which, looks like you’re heading somewhere this afternoon so I’ll leave you to it, see you tomorrow Alan.” He shook both of their hands before heading out almost as fast as he came in.

 

“Remind you of anyone?” Lora asked and Alan shook his head, helping her up and gathered her things before they too left for the afternoon.

 

***

 

_Lora placed a cup of steaming hot tea in front of her son, returned home from college for the holidays and by the looks of things completely and utterly worn out._

__

_“I passed everything, don’t worry programming is still my major and they all went pretty well.”  Jett told her, hands settling around the mug. The evening had grown colder and here in their kitchen he was grateful for the company and the warmth._

__

_“Good, your father will be glad to hear it, he was worried when you said you’d talk to us about it when you got home.” Lora told him, sipping her own drink and unable to wipe the smile from her face, the whole family was home again, of only for the next month when Hannah went travelling but it was enough for her._

__

_Jett laughed. “That was because at the time I was worried about my physics and history classes.” His mom raised a questioning eyebrow. “I like to do something besides programming and in the end I passed, got a good average and I’m free to do what I want for the summer.”_

__

_“What do you want to do?” She asked him, wondering if he was planning on doing anything to help fund his next year, the fact that she and Alan would pay for it if it came down to it should have been irrelevant, their children had been brought up to earn what they had. She really missed not having her son around and although she was happy to see him doing so well, the relief at having him home and that he had chosen to come back for the summer of his own accord hadn’t quite sunk in yet._

__

_“Ah, I don’t know.” He gave her a slightly embarrassed smile. “I’ve been asked to work on a project by a team of Astrophysicist’s and it’s good pay but I can work from home and it shouldn’t be too bad… but besides that I don’t have any plans - might see Sam if he’s home for the summer, would be good to catch up with some of my other friends, might even spend some time with my sister.”_

__

_Lora shook her head and glared in a not too serious way, she was sure underneath his confidence he wasn’t quite so certain or unfazed. Still he hadn’t ever gotten too cocky and sometimes reminded her of Alan when he was working on something or another… determined seemed to be the best way to put it._

__

_“I’m sure Hannah would love to, she’s been waiting for you to come home, she probably never says anything but she misses you.”_

__

_Jett shrugged. “We email each other and call, you know what she’s like, Hannah wouldn’t let me loose contact with her even if I tried.” His mother looked a little more serious then. “And I won’t try. Promise, although whatever programming module she’s taking they didn’t offer when I did my senior year.”_

__

_Now that caught her attention. “Oh?”_

__

_“Yeah, she was asking me about permissions and some other stuff a few weeks ago, said she wanted a good grade to fall back on if her art isn’t successful… ways to secure her program… I don’t remember all of it but she must have aced the class with what she was doing.” Jett yawned._

__

_“Did she tell you what it was? She’s been so busy studying that we’ve barely seen her and since her exams and assignments finished she’s been out with her friends or painting.” Tonight was her Prom and she was staying with a friend afterwards, Lora had checked with her friends parents before letting her go but Sophie was always pretty level headed so there shouldn’t be a problem._

__

_“No, but she said something about not wanting to bore me with the details, she needs to be less afraid to ask for help and maybe not take classes because she thinks she has to.”_

__

_“She’s just trying to be sensible.”_

__

_“I know, but spend too much time trying to be sensible means you never go for what you really want in life, she’s got to go for her art flat out.”_

__

_“Says Jethro Bradley with a minor in history?” Lora countered watching her son shrug in response then smile at her._

__

_“Touché.” He tipped his mug towards her as if in a toast._

__

_“French too?” She really couldn’t help that one._

__

_“Mom!” Jett grumbled, but glad to be home none the less. Silence fell for a few minutes and eventually it felt like the right time to ask. “How’s dad been?” He asked in the same serious way he’d asked his dad about his mom in the car on the way over._

__

_“Better, they’ve settled on a title and he’s on the main board… we’re still pretty certain it’s only to appease the them and he does the best he can.” She told him, Jett was long since old enough to be told the full story after all._

__

_“Uncle Kevin better give him the biggest bonus in history for putting up with that crap when he finally shows himself.”  His mom was silent, clearly not expecting that. “Well it’s true, Sam can believe all he wants that his father didn’t care and left on some escapist trip but I don’t buy it. I don’t know where the hell he is but he wouldn’t have left Sam without a fight.” He personally subscribed to the ‘being held by a foreign government’ idea, seemed far more plausible than the other’s._

__

_“I wish Sam agreed with you.”  She told him, staring at the remnants of her tea._

__

_“Maybe he does, in fact I’m pretty sure he knows his dad wouldn’t have really left willingly but it hurts more that way. Must be easier for him to cope thinking his dad’s the bad guy.”_

__

_“Have you told him this?” She asked._

__

_“Yeah, you remember the fight we had over something stupid the day after graduation?” His mother nodded. “I told him what I thought and he gut punched me.” Lora looked stunned by that but he brushed it off quickly. “I deserved it, shouldn’t have chosen quite that moment to start anything and we’re fine now… he works out though, I mean seriously if I’m ever in a real fight I need him on my side.”_

__

_“Hopefully it won’t come to that.” Lora told him, eyes serious now and hoping she wasn’t being the overbearing mother she fought against becoming._

__

_“Nah, don’t worry about it, we’re cool and I’m not currently in trouble with anyone.”_

__

_Lora smiled and reached for his mug.”Do you want another?”_

__

_“Please.” He told her and slumped back into the high chair. Lora smiled to herself with her back turned, she had really missed this and hoped this month to come would feel much longer than it was._

__

***

She spun the disk containing g.h.L.o around her finger, curious about the program within. Hannah always insisted on a hard back up being left with her parents even though she had more than one herself. Lora and Alan had often wanted to talk to her about it, they knew she saw her programs like people but recent events had put a stop to any such conversation, probably for good. It looked like her self made duties were worth continuing.

 

Jett by contrast seemed to treat his programs like prized solutions, like another job well done but he still showed due care and attention to make sure they were written properly and clearly defined. She wished Kevin Flynn had remembered that and even now she couldn’t believe his demise had come at the hands of his own program.

 

Alan still updated Tron and occasionally wrote other programs for one thing or another and although his approach hadn’t changed he seemed to be more attached to them, Tron especially. He’d admitted that every time a copy or version was sold to another company or sent somewhere else he couldn’t help but feel bad he couldn’t send a Yori with him, like it was somehow wrong that that version of Tron would never meet her.

 

Lora found herself wondering what life was like for them, Kevin had been there for such a sort amount of time and even Hannah hadn’t been there very long at all. She took it upon herself to make sure Yori stayed a significant and important program within the system, both because she wanted to maintain her best work and also because she didn’t want there to become a time when it was considered obsolete and Yori would be forced to leave Tron. 

 

She didn’t like the idea of a person who had loved Tron as long as she loved Alan would be removed just because they weren’t needed anymore. Lora realised this made her more like her daughter than she really wanted to admit but at the same time it was nice to know that someone understood.

 

So she put g.h.L.o in the secret shelf in her closet where master backups of Tron, Yori, Ram and g.h.L.o from the Encom system sat safely locked away in the hope that they would never be needed. She closed the safe after them and locked it with the main key, putting that in turn it it’s hiding place.

 

Alan was waiting for her at their bedroom door, a small smile playing on is lips.

 

“It’s a lovely evening, want to have a drink outside?” He asked, leaning against the door frame with one leg crossed over the other and a hand in his pocket. He looked so much like himself, so relaxed and so much happier - that above all was going to take a long time to get used to.

 

“Sure.” She slipped the nearest pair of flat sandals on and offered her hand out to him, she was rewarded with his breathtaking beaming smile. Lora answered with a smile of her own and took Alan’s arm when he stood again and she let him lead her outside. She hoped that somewhere within the Encom system Yori and Tron managed to find the same happiness.

 

***

 

__


	4. Alan Bradley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The life and times of the Bradley family.  
> Lots of Alan/Lora in this one.

**Alan Bradley**

 

 

_What a feelin’ dancing in the kitchen (the Lora remix)_

 “I’m still surprised Roy’s here.” Lora told her husband, bringing in the empty wine bottles and putting them in the recycling container underneath the sink. “It’s wonderful to see him, but this is the first time he’s come to any of our group gatherings since the children were little.” 

 “I agree, it’s good to see him.” Alan had been sat in their kitchen for a while, having entertained and talked to all of his guests for most of the afternoon and as both his children or Sam would happily point out, he really wasn’t cut out for public speaking. Or anything that made him the centre of attention.

 So he had snuck away and sat himself in the coolest and so far quietest part of the house. Lora was his first visiter in half an hour and was silently thankful it had been his wife instead of anyone else.

 “Did you ask Hannah what she was doing?” He asked as she finished sorting through the bottles and closed the door of the cupboard. 

 “Yeah, she’s going to be staying with us for the next few days, maybe the next week. She’s already put her bags in her room.” His wife smiled as she spoke. “It’s good to have everybody home.” They both understood that she meant _everybody except Kevin_. But at least there was closure there now, at least they now knew where everybody was.

 “I haven’t seen her for more than two days together since the press event in San francisco last year.” He commented, thinking about it suddenly made it seem a lot longer than that.

 “I don’t know how she felt when you insisted she come up onto the stage with me.” Lora stepped towards him, heels clicking on the stone floor almost loud enough to echo.

 “Well… it wasn’t as if I asked her to say anything, I just wanted her there, I wanted her to see people who were still looking for Kevin - who still believed that he would be found somewhere.” His daughters behaviour when she was four had worried her parents for years afterwards, they had worried she would sink back into the frightened terror she’d been in for the months after Kevin disappeared. There had been a couple of times over the years she had slipped back into hit - however brief those occasions had been.

 Lora slid herself up and onto the stool next to him and took his hand. “I think she just wanted to show moral support… Hannah never gave up, just like Jett and just like us.” She looked at him, same soft expression he’d seen on her so many times, Her hair was down this evening, each side of her hair tied back with the green venetian glass hairpins Hannah had bought her last christmas. Her dress was a deep green with an empire line that allowed the material to flow out around her even sat where she was. She was beautiful, always had been, he was sure he didn’t tell her enough. “She just got a little stage fright.” With her comment Alan snapped back to their conversation.

 “Well it’s good to have her home, Jett too… although I’ve barely seen him and he’s been here for the past few days.” His tone was light enough and Lora would know he wasn’t particularly upset by it, their son lived his own life and even if he wasn’t around very much he had always put their family first.

 Lora smiled and leaned to put her head against his shoulder, humming along to whatever music was playing in the garden. It gave him an idea.

 “What are the chances of anyone else coming in here?” He asked, squeezing her hand.

 “Very small, the rest of the wine is in the cooler outside now, can’t think of any reason for anyone to come to this part of the house.” She sat up again. “Why?” and gave him the other look he knew so well, the one that asked what exactly he was up to.

 “Just a minute.” He let go of her hand and stepped down from the stool heading over to the old CD player on the kitchen counter. _Old CD player…._ He could still remember when they were brand new. He opened the draw underneath and rummaged through the scattering of albums that had ended up there over the years. Most were Hannah’s - N*Sync, Britney Spears… everything she now claimed never to have listened to and secretly played in the kitchen when she didn’t think anyone else knew about it but right at the back sat a CD he’d put there. Taking it out, he checked the disk was still inside and chuckled to himself at the note stuck inside it from Jett.

 

_Dad,_

_Don’t play it where I can hear it_

_Happy Birthday_

_Jett_

 

He put the third cd into the player and switched the track to number 3 before turning to his wife, holding out his arms.

 She shook her head and laughed as she realised from the first few notes of the song exactly what is was.

 “Come on , dance with me. No ones going to interrupt.”

 “Alan…” But she’d stood and was walking towards him again, still laughing but letting him take her hands and coax her into his arms.

They danced, unashamed and freely, Alan trying to spin her once or twice, the first successfully and the second almost landed them both on the floor. She held on tighter after that, they had done this before, on and off over the years since they had married and on many occasions before hand. It was the most popular song of the time and he could remember dancing with her like this after Flynn’s party to celebrate his promotion to C.E.O on the roof of her apartment building before he asked her to marry him. 

  _no, no, no contradictions…._

 “Is this on repeat?” She eventually asked and he nodded.

 “Must have pressed the wrong button or something.” But she could see right through him and by the looks of it didn’t mind one bit.

 “How long before they miss us?” Lora asked him, moving a little bit closer.

 “Oh, I don’t know… an hour? I’ve been in her for ages and no one came looking.” He couldn’t quite tell what she was thinking. “Lora?”

 She stopped dancing, smiled then kissed him. Just a light kiss, followed by another and he responded in turn, slower this time and a little more to the point.

 “Oh.”  He said against her lips, not waiting for a response and moving to kiss her again. No one would miss them for a couple of hours and their room was far enough away from anyone else’s…. he turned the CD player off as an after thought and followed his wife out of the kitchen

__

***

 

“Hannah?” He knocked on his daughters door softly, even though he realised there was no reason for him to do so, everyone else in the house was still awake.

 He heard foot steps then his daughter opened her door and waved him in. “I was just unpacking my clothes, if i’m going to be here for a few days then I might as well.” 

 He chuckled. “You definitely don’t get that from your mother.” He was relieved that in all the ways they were similar that this was one of the major differences.

 “Have you got the information from Sam for me?” She asked, clearly tired and suppressing a yawn.

 “Here, he offered to have it transferred into Japanese before I told him Hanabi was bilingual.” He handed her the typed notes with Sam’s hand writing scribbled all over them. Hannah chuckled at his comment.

 “She is, her second language is Italian… it’s just her first is english.” She told him with a smile. “Has he already had a look at the program?” She asked scanning the first page, biting the inside of her lip.

 “I think he had a quick look, must have done or he wouldn’t know what he needed modified… but he can’t get access to the code and he didn’t ask me if he could see it, why?”

 “Just curious.” She told him looking up then setting the papers in her lap. “You okay dad?” She asked.

 “Me? I’m fine, just trying to make sure that everyone else is as well, that includes you sweetheart.”

 “I really am okay with this, if people keep asking I’m not sure how long I’m going to be okay with that but this is fine.” She reassured him.

 “Good. Oh, from the sounds of it Roy, Sam and Quorra will be staying overnight.” He informed her, as it was the guest rooms were on the floor below but he didn’t want Hannah worrying about strange noises in the night. She probably wouldn’t have been too happy about his protective behaviour had she known but he couldn’t help it.

 Hannah seemed to be thinking about something, her eyes focusing on a picture on her wall. “Will they need breakfast? Because I’m getting up pretty early to get this started and I’ll need a break come breakfast time, I can sort it out if you want.” She offered.

 “You sure that’s okay?” She nodded. “Alright, don’t worry so much about me or your mother, we’ll sort ours out later on.” 

 Alan was still stood there, not really sure why. He wanted to tell her he was sorry to make her do this - even though she said it was fine - even though she would…. she shouldn’t have to. For a reason he didn’t fully comprehend she seemed to take it all upon herself, g.h.L.o was her’s and she had always felt a duty to do the upgrades and everything herself without anyone else touching it. 

 When he had first suggested she embellish it years ago it had been to teach her the value of working for something you wanted, to make sure he and Lora had done a good job bringing her up before she headed to college. The finished result of the grid help Location orientation program had been so good and so well coded that he’d installed it almost straight away. It had raised questions of course but anyone who had checked Hanabi’s records could see they had indeed been a registered User since 1988 with a high group level access. Her actual details had been restricted of course and even at that point only Alan could view the other information, g.h.L.o it had become almost invaluable at times and he was proud of Hannah. 

 There was one reason he could think of for her protectiveness surrounding her program but he had never asked, he’d also never asked about some of the primary coding and objectives. She had prioritised users to be safely guarded and escorted from the system but there were a few other primary commands… next to users the programs Tron, Yori and Ram were to be safe guarded and the program would attempt to stop any delete attempt made. That he hadn’t even tried to explain, he’d instead taken it upon himself to make sure that didn’t happen in the first place. Tron was never an issue, it wouldn’t be deleted anyway but Yori and Ram, although equally upgraded and still used… in Ram’s case not for his original function… may at one point or another have been threatened with removal so he’d made it so without his access codes this couldn’t happen.

 Hannah had done something even he wasn’t sure he understood how to do and was unsure if that had been her original intention... He wondered if she had written g.h.L.o with the humanity of the programs in mind and that above all else was why she wouldn’t let anyone else touch her program.

 “Dad.” She seemed concerned about the fact he was just stood in silence.

 “Sorry, must be pretty tired.” He ran his hand through the back of his hair and gave her an apologetic smile.

 “This really will be fine, breakfast will be fine, go to bed and relax, this evening was wonderful and you deserve your rest.” It was, Alan reasoned his daughters very polite way of saying goodnight and asking for him to leave.

 “Right, night Hannah.”

 “Night Dad.” She shook he head chuckling to herself as she closed the door after him.

 It was a shame she hadn’t taken to programming but he suspected Hannah would never have put the same level of dedication into any other program she may be asked to write. Unlike her brother Hannah didn’t like the challenge of unique and bespoke projects and programs to code.

 

***

 

_“I wanna see, I wanna see Mommy!” Jett complained, sat next to his father in the hospital. He was grumpy and had been all afternoon, although at first he’d been happy to see his father when he’d come to collect him from the Flynn’s he’d complained about not being able to see his mother since they’d arrived at the hospital. Even the new teddybear they’d bought for him hadn’t been enough to distract the two year old._

_“You will soon Jett, Mommy and your new sister are just getting ready for us that’s all.” He told him, rubbing his hand lightly on top of his sons dark hair._

_“Sister?” He asked for what felt like the millionth time in the last few hours but Alan smiled, understanding his confusion._

_“You remember when we said you were going to be a big brother to someone?” He asked and his son nodded. “Well your mommy had a little girl and that little girl is your sister.”Alan was beginning to wonder if this made sense to anyone let alone a two year old boy._

_Jett nodded but he did seem a bit confused._

_“Your sister is called Hannah, like your name is Jett her name is Hannah and you, being her big brother might need to help look after her as she grows up because you know what to do and you can show her.”_

_“So being a big brother is a good thing?” He asked, his teddy held very tightly in his hands, he was glad Flynn hadn’t been successful in getting Jett to name it Tron, Ted seemed to be his son’s favourite name._

_“Yes a very good thing.”_

_“And her name is Hannah?” He asked trying out the name and clearly trying very hard to remember it all at the same time. Alan smiled, his tiredness seeming to matter less now._

_“Yes.”_

_“Can I see Hannah and Mommy now?’” He asked again and Alan pulled his son into a hug, looking to the nurse who had just left the room to check if it was alright to go inside, she nodded and headed down the corridor._

_“Yes Jett, now we can go see Hannah and mommy.”  He shifted Jett to his shoulder who was making it clear he didn’t feel like walking. Ted was tucked under his arm as they entered the room, his son perking up as soon as he saw his mother and Alan could tell he wanted to get closer to the bundle gathered in Lora’s arms._

_“Hi sweetheart, you want to meet your sister?” Lora asked, clearly tired and worn out but happy to see her boys._

_“Hannah.” Jett said as Alan settled him down on the bed._

_“Careful now, mommy’s a little sore.” Alan warned but Jett just nodded and scooted along the bed to take a look at the tiny sleeping baby wrapped up warm in a yellow blanket, Lora had refused the pink one in much the same way she had refused blue for Jett. HIs mother put an arm around him and settled Hannah on her lap, her tiny yawn made Jett giggle._

_“She’s tiny.” He said staring at her._

_“You were that small when you were born.” Lora told him._

_“Really?” He asked and both his parents nodded._

_“But she’s smaller than Ted.” He looked so surprised and Alan chuckled, resting a hand on Lora’s shoulder and rubbing slowly, she smiled her thanks at him and he could tell she was trying to commit this to memory as much as he was._

_"She’ll get bigger as she grows up, just like you have.” Lora assured him. “And you’ll be able to play with her and teach her how to do all the things you’re already really good at.”_

_“She won’t be bigger than me will she?” His parents could tell he meant older and it was Alan who chose to answer._

_“No sweetheart, you will always be two years older.”  Jett looked to his dad and smiled at that, turning his attention back to the baby._

_Jett had eventually gotten so tired he’d fallen asleep and Alan had settled him on the little sofa in the room with a spare blanket over him and ted as he slept. Hannah was in the cot next to Lora and Alan was sat on the top of the bed next to Lora with an arm around her shoulders._

_“He seems pretty okay with it.” He told her, relieved that they had gotten over the first hurdle._

_“Yeah, I think it helped that we’ve been talking about it for months… I just hope she doesn’t wake him up too often… I’d hate for them not to get along.”_

_Alan chuckled. “I don’t think he’ll remember even if that does happen, they’re both so young they’ll forget it when they’re older, that and he sleeps like a log, something he gets from his mother.” He kissed her hair, matted though it was he could tell it was clean, the nurses must have helped her into a bath whilst he had gone to collect Jett. “How are you now?”_

_Lora smiled and leaned her full weight against him. “Lighter.” then she shook her head. “Tired but happy… I don’t know, can’t think of anything better, I just wish we were home already.” She told him honestly, reaching her hand out to the edge of the crib where her daughter was sleeping._

_“We’ll be home soon enough but you should enjoy the quiet whilst you can, Jordan can’t wait to see the baby and Kevin’s almost as excited, then there’s Roy and your parents… not to mention all the cards and presents that have arrived over night.”_

_“Really?” She asked, turning as much as she could to see his face without it hurting._

_“Oh yeah, From the University and from Encom.”  Alan could see Lora’s concern and answered it. “There are plenty of presents for Jett too, Jordan and Kevin saw to that, so did Encom.” HIs wife nodded and smiled, looking at both of her children then her husband. She was as tired as she was absolutely happy._

_“Think you can ask them for an extra bed in here?” That was all she needed for it to be perfect._

_“I’ll see what I can do.”_

 

***

 

Lora had fallen asleep almost straight away but Alan’s mind had wandered and kept him awake and unable to drift off, it wasn’t that he wasn’t tired, more that he wasn’t ready to sleep yet so he kept his arms around his wife and listened to her steady breathing.

 Without her Alan knew he wouldn’t have gotten through the past twenty years and maybe even longer… she had stood by him, hadn’t tried to stop them when he and Roy had set up Flynn lives and had even helped with some of the earlier work. As she had pointed out, she no longer worked for Encom and visiting Roy with care packages didn’t seem out of the ordinary or unusual.

 He was certain the children hadn’t figured it out, He even remembered Jett coming home with a Flynn lives hidden underneath his clothes in the time before Sam had given up hope. He’d hidden it from his dad because he hadn’t wanted him to see it and he’d found several in poorly hidden in Hannah’s school bags or in her room in the few times he’d ventured in to help her with programming questions over the years. That if nothing else had convinced him they didn’t know about Independent Thinker or any of the other activities he’d taken part in during that time.

 Lora used one as a nightie for a while, something he hadn’t known what to make of at first but as she’d explained she couldn’t exactly wear an Independent Thinker or Zack Attack tee instead because it would raise unnecessary questions. This he had agreed with although he had compromised and had one printed with Alan 1 on the back in the style of a football shirt as a present later on that year, the front left blank because he hadn’t been able to think of anything appropriate at the time. The sentiment had been so endearing that his wife had so far never worn it outside of the bedroom, in part because she didn’t want the children to judge them and because it had meant a lot to her.

 He had had to tell Sam some of what had happened in order to stop the FBI from launching their investigation but the young man had understood both why he had done it in the first place and also that his family needed to be protected. Sam had been surprised that Roy had been involved but Alan had done his best not to elaborate too much, Roy was after all one of Kevin’s best friends, but even Alan could see that some people would question the situation. 20 years of his life had been dedicated to the search for Kevin Flynn and in the end all Roy had been left with was the knowledge of his death and a reason as to why. Overwhelmingly Alan had wanted Roy to be left in peace.

 For Alan it had been enough, a final closure if not a sad goodbye to his long lost best friend and he knew the same was true for Lora… Sam too seemed to have taken in better than he might have thought, time would tell for Roy though. He hoped it would get easier, hoped that Quorra and Sam would help him along even if Sam never understood exactly why it was so important to do so.

 Roy had returned to Encom and that was enough for now, it would get him back on his feet and help him to live again.

 As Alan continued to let his mind wander he couldn’t help but feel it was nothing but a bout of insomnia that was keeping him awake, it had happened before - for months on end with Kevin’s disappearance, Encom and raising two small children at the same time… taking guardianship of Sam when need be too. Lora had always told him he could wake her and sometimes he did, right now though her firm presence was enough.

 He was lucky, he knew that. To have his wife and children alive and well and happy enough to come home and spend time with them. Jett was a talented free lance programmer who worked on bespoke programs for company’s that needed someone willing to take on almost any request and a daughter with an artistic talent that had blown him away. She was a damn good programmer too but only when she put her mind to it and cared enough, even he would admit that.

 Lora, who undoubtedly everything always came back to was patient and caring, determined and stronger than her appearance had ever made her seem to anyone who didn’t really know her. She had left her work to look after family matters at home, never complaining and only ever looking to the future and had been the voice of reason when he needed it most. They had fought - argued at times but he knew their strength wouldn’t be there without it.

 “I love you.” He whispered, making sure he said it even though she couldn’t hear him and he closed his eyes again, hoping this time to finally get some sleep.

***

 

_The house had been quiet when he’d gotten home, which given the hour was understandable. Alan shrugged off his jacket and threw it against the clothes pegs in the hall. He didn’t even bother to look to see whether it landed on the floor or the pegs… he didn’t care anymore._

_He didn’t check for signs of life in the kitchen, didn’t want to do anything other than go straight to bed and hide from the rest of the world. Alan took his glasses off and shoved them in his pocket rubbing his tired eyes before wrenching his hair backwards with his hands. He hoped Lora was already in bed asleep, he felt bad enough about being home so late without having to face her and those eyes that said they understood… he didn’t want there to have to be anything to understand…. he hadn’t wanted any of this. No one had and having to live with it made him angrier than he knew how to really deal with, he wasn’t even sure who he blamed or why anymore, just that it hurt._

_The lights in Hannah’s and Jett’s rooms were off he noticed as he walked past and he couldn’t hear any movement within, it seemed that their children at least were sleeping soundly. He wanted to open their doors and watch them sleep for a while but something stopped him. Just the thought of them waking and seeing the state he was in was enough, no child should have to see that - not on top of everything else they had been through._

_Alan knew as soon as he reached their bedroom that Lora was still awake and the selfish part of him was grateful, he wanted to see her, wanted to hold her close to him and breathe in the scent of her, curl around her and loose himself… but it wasn’t fair to do that to her without giving anything of himself in return. It wasn’t as if this had been easy for her either, Kevin had been a good friend and so had Jordan, she’d lost them both  too so drawing comfort from her when he wasn’t sure how to return it felt selfish and almost cruel._

_She was sat on the bed reading when he opened the door to their room and she looked up at him in greeting before going back to her book, reading from the light cast by the lamp on her bedside table. He kept his face carefully blank, managing a smile and muttering about getting ready for bed before he headed into their en suite._

_Lora on the other hand took this as a moment to speak, she’d been gathering the courage to do so ever since she’d heard him walking around the house, as quiet as he’d been she had still known it was him._

_“My mother is here, she’s been watching the children and I’ve asked them to go to her if they need anything.” She told him, her voice carrying clearly to the bathroom._

_“Why?” He asked, not sounding annoyed but certainly confused. This was the sort of thing she had always ran past him and taking this upon herself was a rarity._

_Lora sighed. “Because you need a break Alan.”  He just seemed to run the tap harder in response but she was patient, as much as she hated to be and as much as she wanted to scream at him it was clear that wouldn’t really do any good. Arguments between the two of them would make a bad situation far worse than it was already and she didn’t want to loose communication with the only person currently keeping her together._

_“Lora….” But he couldn’t manage more than her name._

_She waited for him to say something else, for him to say something about her mother being there, for him to come out of the bathroom and pretend everything was fine, but even the tap didn’t stop running. That above all else made her close her book, get up from the bed and quickly head to the bathroom._

_“Alan?” She called from the door way, he was hunched over the sink with his hands gripping so tightly on the side that his knuckles had turned white. He looked as though he was shaking and whispering but she couldn’t hear him over the noise of the tap. “Alan?” She asked again, this time stepping in to the room, if he had been looking in the mirror he’d have seen her coming towards him but Lora had just about realised why he was staring down past the sink. She bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment to gather herself then took the final step to be right behind him._

_She placed her hand on his shoulder and felt him tense immediately, she didn’t let go and made sure he could feel the pressure of her hand where it rested. He didn’t turn around and didn’t look at her but he didn’t push her away either. Lora ran her hand along his arm to close over his fingers that were still holding on to the sink for dear life, his hand was ice cold and wet from the spray but that didn’t matter to her, at least that way he wouldn’t be able to tell she was shaking._

_Lora considered turning off the tap but she wouldn’t have been able to handle the silence anymore than he could so she left it running. “Alan.” She said again, this time he looked at her and she felt her heart break for him, his eyes meeting hers over his shoulder finally letting her see his tears so slowly she coaxed his fingers one by one from the sink and turned him to face her properly. She hadn’t ever seen him cry like this before, Alan in all the time she had known him had only done so when he was so happy he wasn’t able to express it any other way and Lora had always known what to do then… this was new and terrifying but she knew there was no one else but her who could help him through this and in all honesty she wouldn’t have wanted there to have been._

_Lora was dressed only in her summer night gown with her hair down and unkept around her shoulders, but she wondered for a moment what he saw when he looked at her, he seemed afraid to move his other hand and reach for her, his fingers clenching and unclenching around the cold marble surface. “I’m not going anywhere.” She told him firmly, knowing she couldn’t completely mean it, no one could but right now it was more truthful and real than any other words of comfort would be._

_“I can’t.” He managed to say before choking on his tears again. His knees almost gave way beneath him but Lora reached her arms underneath his and dropped to the floor with him. Alan pulled her firm against him, taking her by surprise with how hard he held on, she could hardly breathe but instead of pulling away she shifted to link her arms around his back. His hands were freezing through the thin fabric of her night gown and his tears were wet against her shoulder but at least he was there, at least he was finally facing it instead of pretending everything was fine and Kevin Flynn was going to appear from ether he disappeared to at any moment._

_“It’s alright.” She told him, speaking against the skin of his neck where her head rested, his cheek was against hers as if the contact alone would make this easier. For Lora it was, for him to be real and safe in her arms was comfort enough but she didn’t think he knew that and didn’t quite have the words to explain fully that it was alright to be the way he was now, that it was right for him to hurt so much and to start to deal with the pain._

_“No, no it’s not.” he stuttered as he spoke, his breath coming in short rasps against her ear. She rubbed her hand against his back as best she could but it was hard to move and her leg was half way asleep by now, she wanted to do something more than she was and explain what she meant but Alan showed no signs of letting go and Lora had no way of knowing if what she was saying was getting through anyway. So she moved her lands lower on his back and slipped them underneath his shirt, retaining her strong hold from before only now with the added skin to skin contact, hoping that would help._

_They sat together like that for a long while, the tap still pouring ice cold water in a constant stream above them and every now and again sending tiny droplets of ice cold water in a shower over them, not enough to soak them but enough to be a constant reminder of the time passing. Eventually though Alan’s tears subsided and he loosened his hold enough to for her to move. Lora didn’t do anything other than shift over to be looking at him and slid her right arm back around to move her fingers through his hair._

_“Lora I’m s-”_

_“Shhhh.” She cut him off. “Stop thinking you have to take this all on yourself.” Her voice sounded strained, fighting against the lump forming in her throat that she’d been fighting._

_“Who else is going to?” He asked. “Encom’s not what it was… I’ve been removed from CEO… they’re firing so many people, so many of those who made Encom what it is.” He took a deep shuddering breath. “Sam’s a mess, Jett just acts as though everything is fine, Hannah could lapse back into the state she was in at any moment and you’re having to bear the brunt of everything here. Then there’s Roy, I don’t even know where to start there and…. and Kevin’s gone. Gone and I have no idea where or why or even how… you don’t just disappear Lora, Kevin Flynn shouldn’t just disappear.” His voice was strained, the usual tone she was so used to gone and the sound of grief left in it’s place._

_She was biting her lip trying so hard not to let the tears brimming in her eyes fall. “It’s not your fault.”_

_“Doesn’t matter, I still feel as though I should be able to fix at least some of this but no matter what I do it never makes any difference.” He sounded so defeated and she shook her head blinking rapidly. She had been trying so hard not to let her tears show but it didn’t matter… it seemed she needed to be as honest as him with her feelings for this to work._

_“That’s not true.” This time tears escaped her eyes, falling in streams down her cheeks, Alan rested his head against hers, arms pulling her closer to him again. “You’re here Alan, that’s all I need, it’s all the children need.”_

_“Lora.” He said her name like an agreement and an apology all at the same time, he didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to face it but he feels a little better now, like the calm that comes after the storm has flashed and rumbled across the sky. It was like he had forgotten he could talk to her, concentrated so much on protecting his family that he forgot to let them in. Later, maybe much later, when he had started to deal with this properly he would find a way to thank her._

_“No one said we have to give up.” She told him, not really able to see his eyes when they’ were so close to hers but knowing now she was starting to get the message across._

_“I know.”  He rubbed his nose against hers. “I just don’t know what to do.”  he still sounded desperate but lost the hopelessness and she smiled then, looking suddenly like something just clicked back into place and he felt it too. The first puzzle pieces put back together._

_“You will think of something.” Lora’s voice was firm again, with the rawness that fighting her tears has left her with mingled in as she speaks. She was glad she asked her mother to come over, it would have been terrible for Jett or Hannah to see them in this way, two adults lost after their friend disappearance with everything crumbling at their feet and so unsure how to keep everything together. She meant it when she said she wouldn’t leave, not by her own means anyway, she wasn’t so stupid to think this was something best fought alone. Kevin would have hated such an idea._

_“We will think of something.”  and he kissed her, trying to be gentle but not really succeeding and not expecting her response to be so welcoming to his actions when she pressed back almost instantly, eyes closed and lips warm and welcoming._

_When they stood she was unsteady on her feet, cursing under her breath when she forcefully shook her leg to rid herself of the pins and needles. It broke the solemn and desperate mood that has fallen over them, Alan watched his wife with a small smile playing across his lips. He turned off the tap without comment and helps her steady herself before walking back with her to bed._

_It wasn’t a sure sign that things will be alright again, but it was a beacon in the darkness and a sharp reminder of everything he had and how lucky he was to have it. Lora wasted no time in throwing back the covers and he climbed in welcoming her touch and presence as she tangled her legs with his and settles her arms around him once again. It doesn’t matter that he held on a little tighter than he normally would, doesn’t matter that their kisses are slow and deep. They’re both trying to heal and cope with the loss of someone close without loosing touch with each other in the process._

__

_***_

It was close to ten when Alan made it to the kitchen for breakfast, Lora was in the shower but would be following him as soon as she was done, they both lacked the ability to just lye in bed and waste the day, not matter how much either wanted to. He inspected the cupboards and fridge to see what had been left by Hannah, he knew she wouldn’t have cooked everything for breakfast, even given Jett and Sam’s appetites. 

 He smiled at the note attached to the left over eggs and sausage. 

 

_Iced tea this afternoon would be great_

_Thanks_

_Hannah xxx_

 

How his children had ever gotten into the habit of leaving notes all over for them he had no idea but it was a continual source of amusement. At least most of the time.

 Alan set about making breakfast when he heard a familiar set of foot steps heading his way.

 “Morning Roy.” He called as he bleary eyed friend entered the kitchen.

 “Morning Alan.” He yawned curls still damp and hanging around his face.”Didn’t think anyone else would be having breakfast so late.” Roy leaned against the kitchen counter next to where Alan was frying the sausages and preparing the eggs.

 “We all ended up having a pretty late night, Lora will be down soon but you’re right, all the kids were up a couple of hours ago. It’s funny we never could get Jett out of bed before 12 on a sunday for anything and now he’s up like a shot at 8, I’ll never understand it.”

 Roy chuckled. “I do remember that holiday back august ‘82 we had the same trouble with you and Lora.”

 “That was different.” Alan mock protested. “Very different.” He shoved sausages and an egg onto his friends plate. “Go on, you know where everything else is.”

 Roy shook his head still smiling and knowing the usually embarrassed grin would be on his friends face. It was the first and only holiday they all, including Jordan went on together. Two weeks just away from it all… it felt like a lifetime ago even though it wasn’t.

 “How are you settling in back at Encom?” Alan asked, bringing two other plates over to the table for himself and Lora, whenever she decided to show herself.

 “I have an office.” He stated shrugging his shoulders. “But I’m still not sure what I think of it yet, Sam’s been generous in his offer and everything he’s done so far but it’s going to take a lot of getting used to.”

 “It will for all of us but I do understand, if you ever need anything I’m just down the hall at Encom and myself and Lora will always be here if you need us.” Alan reassured him.

 “Thank you, really, for everything you’ve done but I think I’m going to be okay. I spoke to Quorra last night and it seems to have cleared a lot of things up.”

 “Oh?” it sounded like a question but Alan really didn’t mind if Roy chose not to elaborate. They had come to an understanding over the years and Roy seemed to prefer silence on the matters closest to his heart.

 “We have a lot in common and I don’t know how to explain it but she is very easy to talk to and it helped that she already knew everything I wanted to talk about… it helped clear the air.” Alan didn’t see him put a hand over the usb stick in his pocket.

 “It’s good to hear it.” Alan smiled at his friend genuinely relieved. 

 “Morning.” Lora mumbled as she headed in to join them. Both men were quiet and she looked between them. “I haven’t interrupted anything have I?” she asked sitting herself on the stool next to Alan.

 “No, just talking about how Roy’s been settling back in at Encom.” Lora seemed to consider the truth in it but shrugged in acceptance, she could at the very least ask Alan later if she wanted to but in all honesty one look at Roy had told her everything she needed to know. he actually looked happy for the first time in years.

 

***

“Hannah’s going home tomorrow.”  Alan reminded his wife as they settled down for a late night drink in the garden, it had been a hard week at Encom but a good one, the company felt like it was standing on a solid moral ground for the first time in 20 years and their friends and family seemed recovered and happier.

 “She’s only 20 minutes away and she’ll be back soon.” Lora reassured him. “Jett promised to stay around for a couple of weeks. I think Hannah said something to him earlier on this afternoon during their movie marathon.” It was a tradition they’d let fall by the wayside and they normally held it on a saturday afternoon with a couple of friends, today it had been an impromptu decision given it was friday and Lora had been pleasantly surprised to come home and find them half way through the star wars trilogy. Chatting and laughing in a way she remembered them doing as teenagers.

 “Think they’d be embarrassed if we ever told them how much we miss them?” he asked sliding his hand along the table in front of them to entwine his fingers with hers. He wasn’t entirely serious about his question and from Lora’s response she could tell.

 “Yes Alan, they would. Jett would storm off and Hannah would do her awkward nose scrunch face she does when she’s uncomfortable.” Lora chuckled as she spoke and noticed him doing the same. “But they know and they come home because they miss us too, we agreed to let them live their owns lives and it seems to be working out fine.” She looked out into their garden as the sun set past the trees. “I just hope Hannah doesn’t tell us she’s heading back to Italy any time soon or Jett decides to move half way across the world without any warning.”

 “Jett told me there’s something in New York he want’s to work on, didn’t go into any specifics but at least he’ll be on the same continent. He seems pretty confident he’ll be back and to the whole time though.” Alan reassured her, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles.

 Lora looked relieved at the last part and Alan smiled at her, she was so unwilling to smother them but so clearly worried about their children’s well being. she moved closer to her husband on the bench they were sat on and leaned her head against his shoulder, he slipped his arm around her in response and pulled her closer enjoying her warmth and presence in the cooling evening air.

 “How long do you think it will be until Sam speaks to Hannah about g.h.L.o?” She asked eventually, resting her arm along his leg.

 “I honestly don’t know, but either way I think he’ll understand why we didn’t say anything and I was careful enough not to lie, he’s a smart kid - always has been and I’m sure he’ll figure it out.”Alan told her, kissing her hair and resting his head with hers for a moment. “You want to head inside?” He asked.

 “Not quite yet, but if you want to we can.” she said, he just held her tighter in response, took his glasses off with his free hand and put his arms around her completely with his head once again rested on hers.

 “it’s fine.” Alan mumbled against her hair.

 “Hmmm.” Was Lora’s response. “You think we can at least get another couple of months of peace?” She asked.

 “Who knows, but it should at least be easier to deal with now, having Roy back at Encom, you here and the kids back home… the defence mechanisms are back in place… not that you ever left but if anything does happen, I think we’re a little better equipped than we have been.” Lora hummed again to that and Alan closed his eyes holding her close. Things were more settled and it didn’t feel like the calm before the storm either. It felt more like whatever was to come, if anything, wouldn’t be directly dealt with by them. He knew as well as his wife that Sam would eventually speak to Hannah about her program and he couldn’t help but think Jett would be involved somehow… but it didn’t matter, he had meant what he said, they would be there to deal with it this time, whatever it was that came their way.

 

***

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Roy's chapter is next up.


	5. Roy Kleinberg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy Kleinberg's story arc. The origins of the Flynn lives organisation and his closeness with Kevin Flynn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here it is, the last part. I know that people have been reading this but no one has commented either way, it would be nice to know if anyone has enjoyed this or what they think but that's just how things go. At least this finally has somewhere to exist outside of my hard drive. 
> 
> I would have gotten around to posting this faster but seeing as no one was interested I took my time. It's all here now though. All done.

**Roy**

 

“You must be Roy.” The young woman with black hair commented, sticking her hand out in front of her in greeting. He took her hand without really saying anything. “I’m Quorra and it’s so good to finally meet you.” Her smile took him a little off guard and by the sounds of it she knew an awful lot about him and he really wasn’t sure how exactly he felt about it. 

 “Roy Kleinberg.” He replied trying to keep the stutter out of his voice. “Sam told me that you wanted to talk to me.” His free hand was worrying the outside of his jeans pocket and his right foot was twisting in the short grass of the Bradley’s lawn.

 “That’s right, Would you like to go somewhere more private?” She offered, looking at the crowd of people around the barbecue. Roy followed her eyes to Hannah Bradley and Sam Flynn talking about something or another and a few other familiar faces he knew as their family friends or relatives. Most people were getting ready to leave and he was finally having to face up to what he’d come here for… to speak at last to the one person who’d spent the last twenty years with Kevin Flynn as her Guardian.

 “Yeah, sounds like it would be for the best.” He send a nod in Hannah’s direction and she smiled in return, going back to whatever conversation she and Sam were having.

 Quorra nodded and they headed for a small paved area with wooden benches and two plant pots with white flowers, they were glowing with the reflected light of the lamps lighting the garden from above and below. It was an impressive lay out and he was sure at any other time he’d appreciate the surroundings… but not now.

 “Roy?” He just looked at her, slim and undoubtedly beautiful and eyes almost glowing in the light. She was waiting for him, patient though she was there was something or many things she wanted to say to him and he’d be lying if he didn’t have his own questions for her.

 “Sorry.” And he sat down on the bench, Quorra sitting on the other end.

 “I know this must be hard.” She started and he had considered the usual retort of _you have no idea_ but the look in her eyes told him otherwise, she did know, perhaps all too well.

 “It’s been 20 years.” He told her honestly, hands gripping either side of the wooden surface. Quorra had chosen to sit sideways on, one leg tucked beneath her and her arm resting on the back of the bench. 

 She nodded again, slowly then looked at him, seemed to see past his layers of hiding - right back to the secret he had kept from everyone except Alan and Lora. 

 “Kevin spoke about you often, more so in the earliest days of our seclusion but I don’t think he ever really stopped thinking about you or wanting to.” Her voice was loud enough only for them both to hear and although she was watching him Roy didn’t feel as though he was being judged. “He would tell me all the stories from the old grid, of Tron, Ram, Yori and the others he’d met.” She was smiling at the memory and he could almost hear the stories playing from his memories both locked away and cherished.

 “He always said he regretted what had happened to Ram, at the time I had no idea what he was talking about, Ram had been outsourced to the Actuarial firm that had requested it and I had no idea he’d been stolen by the MCP.” He sighed. “I gave him my master copy and Kevin insisted on putting him back into the system, I remember asking why, if what he had said was true then the new Ram wouldn’t remember anything but he had said that didn’t matter - just wanted to get him back to his friends.” 

 “Zen I think he said when I asked him, said it needed to be done.” Quorra added and Roy couldn’t help but smile a little at the thought that she had asked the same question.

 “After that the nickname stuck, didn’t matter how many other programs I had written, he insisted on calling me Ram and just like with anything else he decided upon there was no going back.” Their friendship had been light and easy then, Kevin met Jordan shortly after and he had been as happy as anyone else when they married within a few months of Alan and Lora.

 “He told me all about his friends ‘back home’, He told me about Jordan and Sam even though at the time it was difficult… and sometimes he would go very quiet before finding a way to change the subject. About Alan, Lora and their two children who I’ve now met as grown ups and the other people and friends at Encom.” She took a deep breath as if trying to figure out how to word it, he wanted to tell her that it was okay… he knew what she was going to say but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. “He told me a lot about you too.”

 “Quorra-” She cut him off with her hand on his shoulder.

 “There are some things he would have wanted you to know but didn’t know how to say, he asked me.” She took another deep and steady breath. “When he asked me to switch places with him and save Sam he gave me his disk… and along with something else.” She slid her hand into the pocket of her skirt, form fitting and tight though it was and pulled out a USB stick. “They weren’t my memories so I can’t see them and wouldn’t want to. They just sort of appeared with me but I know this one is for you.”

 He didn’t take it from her and instead just stared. Part of him wanted to reach for it and hold on, one last piece of his closest friend, one last communication but he was frozen in momentary terror. 

 “It’s okay, I can understand at least a little of what you must be feeling. As I said he told me a lot. I know that after Jordan died you and he became closer, that you were a big help to him - helped him find himself amongst the chaos and the sadness.” Her tone was softer and she held the small device within her hand still seeming to wait until he took it from her.

 “I did what I could, no one could stand by and watch their friend go through that alone..” He explained remembering the look of utter despair on the face of a man normally so happy and willing to find the bright side. HIs eyes were hollow and face worn, stubble on his then normally cleanly shaven face and clothes falling from his thinner frame. Kevin was falling apart after his wife had died and with a young son to protect he didn’t seem to be coping with his own grief.

 “He worried that he’d never told you enough just how grateful he’d been.” 

 “He didn’t have to.” Roy told her, eyes on the ground.

 “I think he knew that too.” Her voice was softer yet and he could feel his throat tightening.

 “Quorra?”

 “Yes?”

 “What else did he tell you?” He asked around the lump forming in his throat for what felt like the hundredth time in the last few days. Roy had decided to face it this time, Quorra would understand and he so badly wanted to talk about it now, even if he hadn’t before. The more of his locked away thoughts and feelings that were brought to the surface, the more that followed.

 Quorra smiled. “Where do you want me to start?” 

 

***

_Lora was the one who had suggested it, that they go and see him. He had turned down their invitation to dinner twice and hadn’t even bothered to reply when they tried a third time. They could both see where this was going and having had their own private breakdown a month before they wanted to be there for their friend should he do the same._

  _“You would think he would have at least said no, come up with some sort of excuse but to not reply… it’s so unlike him.” Alan told her, turning their car around the corner and pulling up to Roy’s house. He still had another 6 months left on his contract with the gardner so the outside of his house was deceptively well kept._

  _“I know, but he’s not been right since Kevin disappeared.”_

  _“Lora, none of us have.” She gave a nod of agreement and reached over to place a reassuring hand of Alan’s thigh._

  _“I think there’s more to it than that.”  They’d almost had this conversation on more than one occasion but they’d always stopped short of the mark. There was only one explanation that really suited… two if you accounted for both possibilities but neither Lora nor Alan had ever wanted to voice it out loud._

  _“So do I but we can’t ask, if we’re wrong…” He eyed her carefully, parking the car and killing the engine._

  _“Yeah, I know.” She sighed. “But we’re going to have to say something… I can’t stand watching him do this to himself, if we knew what was wrong we could help. I would rather him start up some sort of campaign to find Kevin than wallow in his misery….”_

  _“Come here.” Alan had removed his seatbelt and reached over the seats to put his arms around her in an awkward hug, it was the best he could manage but Lora appreciated it, even if his glasses were digging in to her head. “Shall we?” He asked, kissing her cheek before sliding back into his own seat and taking his car keys and slipping them in his pocket._

  _Lora grabbed her bag and took a deep breath before opening the car door and facing this head on. Alan took her hand when she reached his side and held it firmly. Together they walked through Roy’s driveway, neither speaking and only the clicking of Lora’s heels on the pavement marked their path._

  _Alan was the one who knocked, not trusting the bell and wanting to do something with his hands to alleviate the anxiety that was creeping through him. There was silence for a minute or two and Alan knocked again, Lora rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand in reassurance as the minutes continued in silence. Eventually they heard movement within though and Alan’s hand rested in a fist at his side. The door had two panes of glass, frosted and distorted in the way that most were but they could see enough to know it was Roy on the other side of the door and he would know who they were in return._

  _He seemed to fiddle with the locks on the other side of the door but eventually he opened it, standing there dressed in a crumbled T shirt and sweatpants. Lora was surprised he looked clean and showered, even clean shaven but it didn’t matter, one look at his face and it was clear he was trying to cover up whatever was going on with him - shame that they both knew him well enough to see past it._

  _“Hello Roy, we were in the neighbourhood and just thought we’d stop by given we haven’t seen too much of you lately.”  Alan said with one of his rarer smiles these days, it was as false as their friends appearance but he seemed to know what he was doing._

  _“I’ve been busy… trying to get things sorted out, find work… find something to do with my time now.” He looked so nervous as he spoke and didn’t really look at either of them, decided instead to find the door frame  very interesting._

  _“Can we come in?” Lora asked._

  _“Ah, yeah s-sure, come on in.” He stepped aside and they followed him in doors, making their way to his front room. It wasn’t dirty so much as unkept and smelled a little musty. Roy opened the curtains to let the afternoons light back into the room and opened one of the windows which took the edge off the smell. “It’s, it’s been a while since anyone has been over.” He turned to them both now sat on the larger of the two sofa’s . “ Do you want anything to drink?”_

  _“No, we’re fine.” Alan replied and Lora looked between her husband and Roy, trying to figure out what to say next._

  _“Roy, take a seat.” She told him, she knew she sounded a little angry and really she couldn’t help it. Some part of her resented that they had to go through this pain in the first place but there was really no one to blame, not when she knew in her heart Kevin hadn’t left of his own free will…. and that was the worst part about it, not having anyone to pin this on and having to live with so many questions. Roy it seemed had more questions that needed answering that most people and he seemed to be letting them eat at him._

  _Roy did as he was told though, sat on the sofa opposite with his slightly longer than normal curls falling in front of his eyes. He tried to push them to one side but failed, eventually choosing to pick at the hem of his shirt._

  _“How have you been Roy?” Alan asked him, his voice taking a softer tone. He sat back and made him self comfortable on the sofa, Lora copied and Roy suddenly seemed more relaxed as a result._

  _“We’ve been worried about you.” Lora added when Roy didn’t reply, the edge gone from her voice and only her honest concern left in it’s place._

  _Roy just nodded._

  _“Roy?” She said gently, he looked at her as if trying to gauge something, looking to Alan for the answer to the same question._

  _“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do now.” He said at last._

  _“None of us do.” Alan told him honestly. He just wished he was in more of a position to help, his own job had been safe guarded to keep public opinion for Encom as high as it could be. but his new position was nothing but a nonsense post meant to keep him in his place whilst others changed Encom into whatever they wanted it to become. He had wanted to fight, wanted to protest but to do so would have risked his families wellbeing and his only hope of reclaiming Encom in the future._

  _“I just keep thinking over and over what could possibly have happened last year and I can’t find the answers, everywhere I look there’s no evidence of how... and I don’t know what to do.”_

  _“You’ve been looking?” Alan asked somewhat surprised._

  _“Yes of course, even before they fired me, which has to have been the best thing they could have done by the way. It’s freed up my time to investigate… I’ll admit I’ve been using some of the tricks he taught me but all I really know is that he’s not dead, he’s alive out there somewhere.” He was rambling, but that was normal, they had come over there thinking he wasn’t doing anything about it, thinking he was hiding away… it seemed as though he’d gone in a different direction and an altogether more productive one._

  _“It’s getting harder though.” he admitted. “I’m going to run out of money and places to look, all this sneaking around by myself, so to speak, it’s actually more investigating really, it’s just not… I can’t find anything - not even the smallest clue.” Roy couldn’t stop the desperation in his tone and the continuing disbelief in what had happened._

  _“None of us can Roy, Kevin wouldn’t have left like that, we just can’t prove it.” Lora said and his eyes shot to hers. Whether at the mention of his name or what she said wasn’t really clear until he spoke._

  _“I’m pretty sure I can.” He told her but not really meaning to. “I mean...I can’t… I still don’t.” He sighed and covered his face with his hands trying to compose himself. Roy had always been private, Alan could remember not realising he was the lead programmer until the end of his first year at Encom, they worked in the next booths but rarely spoke. It was only after they bumped into each other in the employee kitchen whilst he prepared popcorn that they had their first conversation. For years after that Roy had been happier to sit at his computer and program than socialise, gradually cheering up when they removed the cubicles and Flynn showed an interest in working with the different area’s of the company, bringing them all together._

  _Roy had become close friends of theirs and had been at both Kevin and Jordan’s and Alan and Lora’s weddings, he’d opened up and even been given his own nickname. One Alan wasn't sure Roy understood, he had also questioned why Kevin had been so insistent he have a back up copy of Ram but in the end he had handed it over and let it be, figuring the nicknames were just some sort of Flynn thing - Alan and Lora had them after all._

  _He and Kevin had become closer in the almost three years following Jordan’s death, Roy’s quiet nature meant he would just sit with Kevin and listen without too many questions or prying into anything, Alan hadn’t known what to say in those siutations and Lora had always worried she said too much._

  _“It’s okay.” Lora told him. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we just wanted to make sure you were looking after yourself. This last year has been hard and we wanted you to know that we’re here for you if you need anything.” She looked to her husband and he nodded his agreement, things were bad but not what they had been expecting and maybe it was time to leave for a while._

  _“It’s not that… it’s just I don’t know how to talk about it, I wake up sometimes and it feels like it was all a dream, the night… the night he disappeared I was supposed to see him, he was supposed to come back here… when he didn’t I realised I couldn’t exactly raise the alarm… there could have been some other reason he didn’t answer his phone or his pager, but when he didn’t show up for work the next morning … I couldn’t… no one would have understood.”_

  _Alan and Lora looked at each other again, they couldn’t figure out whether or not he realised they were still there listening to this and it felt like a private intrusion._

  _“Understood what?” Alan asked gently._

  _Roy took a deep breath in then out seeming to gain some of his composure in the process. “I.. would you like to see what I’ve been doing?” he asked them and they both nodded their agreement._

  _“Good, follow me.” He lead them through to the back of his house and up the second staircase hidden within what looked to be a parlour door. It lead upstairs to a room lit by a skylight across most of the ceiling. Lora hadn’t seen this place before but Alan seemed familiar with it._

  _“Flynn told me about this place, he just never told me where it was.” Roy nodded and looked a little embarrassed._

  _“I used to have a telescope in here and hammocks, sort of my hide away when I needed to think about a program or figure out how to fix my code.” He told them gesturing to supports on the walls no doubt used to sling two hammocks across the space, there were still star charts along two of the walls and a collection of pictures, Lora smiled when she spotted the one of their family pinned amongst the rest. She could tell how wonderful this place had once been but she was intrigued by it’s current use too. “Kevin found it once when he was poking around whilst I worked on brining my master of Ram to the current standard… at least the standard of the time, once he’d found it I couldn’t do much more than offer him Ram and a the use of a hammock in return for his silence.”_

  _Alan laughed at that and for a moment they all shared a familiar smile, the ache that followed was normal now but it didn’t mean it would always be. It felt better in a way to remember, gave them something to hold on to._

  _“Did he ever take you up on it?” Alan asked, he actually already knew the answer but wondered if Roy was ready to let them know about it._

  _“Yeah, two and a half years ago he just sort of showed up, it was late and I didn’t question him, didn’t want to turn him away. He would turn up at random after that, sometimes after whatever it was he was working on or when Sam was at school and he wanted to get away for a while. He had a spare key in the end so he could let himself in.”_

  _“I can see why.” Even in the late afternoon sun the view of the sky was beautiful and Lora couldn’t help but thinking it was a shame to see this room reduced to it’s current state._

  _“Yeah, eventually though he’d let me know when he was coming over, worked out a little better that way.” There was something else in his eyes then, something he didn’t hide from them and although neither commented they knew he was letting them in on something, whether that was just a very close friendship they didn’t know but they suspected it was more than that._

  _“So, what is it you have to show us?” Alan asked and Roy gestured for them to join him at the large desk on the other side of the room._

  _“This is everything I have, all the theories people have come up with and all the possible sightings - they’re all bogus so far but it helps to check them out, make sure I’m not missing anything.” There were piles of newspapers, magazine cuttings and general notes scattered over the surface and on the two tables either side. There was a cork noticeboard above it with more articles and post it notes attached with the reasons they were wrong or invalid stuck to them. “I’ve also been keeping a record on the computer, wrote a nice new organisation program to go along with it… should manage to fund another few months with it, but after that as I said… I don’t know what I’m going to do.”_

  _Alan looked at his wife, wanting to ask her something without Roy knowing they were even having the discussion. She bit the inside of her lip in thought, taking another look around the room. They had tried to look for him, called in every favour they ever had… national campaigns, even worldwide and it hadn’t helped.  Not when Encom was forcefully putting an end to their efforts in the guise of ‘moving on’._

  _“I don’t think ‘you’ should.” Alan told him and Roy looked very much like he wanted to voice his disagreement. “Just hear me out Roy, I’m not saying you should stop this, on the contrary - you’re in a position where you can do something about it, keep the flame alive so to speak.” Lora nodded her agreement, coming to stand closer to the two of them._

  _“What do you mean?” Roy asked._

  _“Flynn’s not dead, we all know that and like you said we can’t really prove it - not yet anyway and when we can we will… but for now you should be the voice we can’t be, should shout the message loud and clear to anyone who’ll hear you.”_

  _“But you just said-”_

  _“I said you, Roy Kleinberg shouldn’t be the one to do this but you can always take on an alias, some day soon we’re all going to be doing it online anyway so why not start a little earlier.”_

  _Roy thought about it, or at least seemed to be quietly thinking about something and Lora rested on the table next to Alan, not quite touching but close enough that it wouldn’t take much on either part. Something was stopping them both though, they knew they had to be there as Roy’s friends rather than a full force to be reckoned with._

  _“It’s a good idea and I would love to do that but guys, any program I write isn’t going to make me enough money to fund this and any job I would take would fill up much needed time.”_

  _“I have a feeling Alan’s thought about that part too.” Lora told him, regarding Alan out of the corner of her eye._

  _“I’ll fund it.” he stated simply. “I’ll use my own alias, set up another account that way I get to feel like I’m doing something more than I am and you can carry on, make this into something Flynn would be proud of.”_

  _Roy looked at Lora before responding to Alan. “Are you okay with this?” he asked her but she just smiled, gaze drifting to the photo’s all pinned together on the wall._

  _“I think it’s the right thing to do, as long as you both let me help out from time to time.” Alan sent her a look, the one that had always told her to be careful. “What? my work at the university is part time and with both of the children at school I get bored, no ones going to say anything if I decide to pay Roy a visit.” She explained and they both seemed to understand where she was going with it._

  _“Alright then.” Roy said, giving them his answer and a rare smile. “I’m in - just as soon as I come up with an alias.”_

  _“Yeah… that’s going to be the tricky part.” Alan admitted, he wasn’t one for nick names and Tron had only stuck in the first place because of how insistent Flynn had been about it. “We should probably get together to discuss it, oh say, over dinner tomorrow night?”_

  _‘“Alan…” Roy started, clearly wanting to say something else but instead he nodded. “I’ll be there.” He told them and meaning it this time. If this really was the most elaborate plot to have him come to dinner with them then he’d accept it every time, the closer it got him to Kevin and the close they got to finding the truth would make it all worth it._

 

***

There wasn’t really anything he could do but see what exactly Flynn had left for him, it seemed like an ordinary usb pen although there was no way to tell how much it contained. It was already 2 in the morning, Quorra had only just left to head to her and Sam’s shared room for the night. She’d been a welcome breath of fresh air after twenty years of heart ache, her own experiences and everything she had been through with Kevin filling their night with long conversations and mutual understanding. 

 Part of him had worried that he would some how blame her for keeping Kevin away for so long but he had known from the moment they’d started talking that it couldn’t have been further from the truth. Flynn had chosen to protect her, had refused to let another see harm on his account if he could prevent it and Roy understood, more than that - he would have done the same thing had it ever been the other way around.

 He kept eying the computer in his guest room. It had always amused him that the Bradley’s put their old machines in the spare rooms within their house until either they no longer worked or they were replace by others. It looked like he’d been left with Jet’s old desktop, he recognised the stickers taped to the side of the machine and smiled at the Flynn Lives and 89 stickers stuck on the side of the monitor. There was of course none of his information on the hard drive and the back ground was normal enough but he wondered if Lora had put him in this room on purpose.

 He eventually gathered enough courage to sit at the computer and slide the usb into the slot of the computer tower. The memory stick appeared to contain a large list of video files dated from 1989 to start with then just ascending numbers… _guess he lost track of time._

 The list seemed vast and it brought with it a strange sort of comfort, Roy took a deep breath and clicked on the first link waiting with shaking hands and a sudden dizziness coming over him as EnVideo opened to play the file.

 

****

_The first time it had happened he’d panicked, not outwardly of course, but inwardly it sent a shiver of terror through him. It was the summer of 88 and a year and four months since Jordan’s death. He’d headed over to Kevin’s after work and spent the afternoon with him and Sam, which by that point was a frequent and normal occurrence._

  _Eventually the boy had headed to bed and he and Flynn were watching something or another on television… they slipped into their normal and comfortable silence, Roy would listen to anything at all his friend wanted to say with little if no comment and Flynn would feel comfortable to just be himself._

  _Kevin had started talking about Jordan and as normal Roy let him speak, silent at his side. His friend was dealing with things a lot better than he had been and some of the storm clouds were starting to lift. Something was on his mind tonight though and soon enough the tears that had long since dried up returned. Roy felt powerless to help so had eventually pulled his friend into an awkward hug. It wasn’t the first, it had happened time after time that neither spoke about but it had never felt like it did then. Different and new and warm with a spark that traveled through him almost as strong as the fear that followed._

  _Shit._

  _Since then in the two months afterwards Roy had gotten very good at hiding it, grown men did not feel that way towards other grown men… at least not at their age when they hadn’t before… and in all honesty he didn’t know what it was or even what had caused it. Never in all the time they had known each other had he even seen Kevin Flynn as anything other than a close friend and he couldn’t fathom what had changed it. He was just thankful his friend hadn’t seemed to notice._

  _Roy wasn’t immature enough to think that ignoring his friend was a valid way to deal with it, he had kept things the same, instead suppressing any feelings that crept up in relation to Flynn. They were, as far as he was concerned an irrelevant side effect to their continuing friendship._

  _Kevin had showed up on his doorstep a couple of days before, late and exhausted. He didn’t look like he’d been crying but at the same time something was clearly bothering him again, he’d asked for a place to cool his head and Roy had taken him to his hide away and they’d watched the stars, talked like things were normal and for a while it was as though everything was okay again._

  _He hadn’t expected him to turn up again two days later._

  _“Hi.” Kevin greeted him as he opened the door. “Don’t suppose I could crash here tonight?”_

  _“Sure.” Roy opened the door and let him through, locking it behind him._

  _Flynn stood awkwardly in the hallway for a moment before speaking. “Sam’s at the Bradley’s for a sleep over with Jett and I can’t stand to be at home alone at the moment so I thought…” He raked his hand through his hair. “If your offer of anytime still stands would it be okay?” He didn’t look directly at Roy which was a little unusual given he was used to Kevin’s openness about this sort of thing but he wasn’t one to question it._

  _“It’s fine, my hideout okay or do you want the guest room?”_

  _“You have a guest room in this place?” Kevin asked, just never picturing Roy to be the sort of guy to enjoy entertaining.. that and most of the spare surfaces in his house were covered in books, computers or records._

  _“Well, a room with a bed that I don’t use… it’s clean at least but it’s more storage than anything.” Roy admitted starting to lead the way, he was wearing his sweatpants and a Flynn’s Arcade T shirt he’d picked up one night a few years ago when they’d all ended up there after closing hours… he couldn’t remember the circumstances only that his original shirt had been ruined and he’d never given this one back._

  _“Fair enough.” Kevin chuckled following him through the kitchen and the secret door then up the staircase. It was pretty dark out and the street lamps weren’t casting too much light, it was enough to see by with the lights off but whereas Roy could get into the hammock with his eyes closed Kevin still needed a little help. “Thanks man.” Kevin uttered as Roy held his steady for him before climbing into his own, he also threw a blanket over to his friend. “Lora and Alan say hello by the way, I told them where I was heading before I left just incase.”_

  _“Makes sense, I haven’t seen Alan for most of this week, I’ll have to stop by and see them.”_

  _“You should, Hannah’s been redecorating the stairs.” Kevin told him, looking his way and being careful not to topple out of the hammock._

  _“How?”_

  _“Her new chalks, apparently Lora came home to find Alan transfixed by flowers lining their once cream staircase and their two children staring proudly at it.”_

  _Roy laughed. “How did she get through the baby barrier?”_

  _Kevin shrugged. “Apparently Jett did it, Alan said he found Jett watching over her just a couple of steps down making sure his little sister didn’t fall.”_

  _“Sounds like she has him wrapped around her little finger.” Roy was still chuckling at the idea and wondered what it looked like._

  _“Maybe, or she’s covering for him about something, Lora’s been trying to see if anything has been broken or gone missing.” Kevin yawed and set his sights skyward, it really was peaceful to just look up and let your mind wander for a while._

  _Time passed and Roy started to feel himself lulled to sleep, glad that Kevin had chosen to come to him but at the same time unable to suppress the strange longing that had settled over him._

  _“Did I ever tell you that I kissed Ram?” Flynn announced suddenly and from no where. Roy ran the past few minutes through his head again before responding, wondering if maybe he’d been talking out loud without his knowledge, when he was sure he wasn’t he replied._

  _“What?” He asked, sounding genuinely confused._

  _“When I was inside the Encom computer back in ‘82 I kissed Ram.”  It was said so matter of factly Roy didn’t really know how he was supposed to respond to that only that his mind was whirring and wondering and hoping there was a reason for this. Kevin wasn’t one for idle conversation that involved kissing his doppleganger, or at least he didn’t think so._

  _“W-why?” He asked, mouth suddenly very dry and palms suddenly clammy and uncomfortable._

  _“Because he was drezzing and wanted needed to make sure he made it out alive, it didn’t work for very long but it was worth it.” He explained, purposely not looking at his friend. “That and I wanted to.” Flynn added and Roy stayed silent, still not sure what this had to do with anything or why Kevin was brining up events from so many years ago. “I’d forgotten about it.” Flynn continued. “ It was spur of the moment thing - and for the record I kissed Lora’s program Yori too, only she took it as me teaching her something - offering thanks for her help, but Ram? I’ll never be sure what he thought.”_

  _“I - I - I don’t understand.” Roy stuttered, his old and almost forgotten nervousness returning._

  _“It’s not as if it’s something I’ve thought about, I’d completely forgotten until the other day but I found something that reminded me.”_

  _Roy was staring at his friend, wanting him to look at him and at the same time very much hoping he wouldn’t turn around. He didn’t want Kevin to see the expression he was sure he could no longer hide but he was uncomfortable and scared by the prospect of what his friend was talking about._

  _“Jordan and I had an agreement, if anything happened to the other then we would morn and move on, we didn’t want each other to dwell in loneliness when there was someone we could be happy with. I always selfishly thought it would be me that would leave her and not the other way around… ever since I’d met her there was never anyone else I wanted to be with.”_

  _“I know.” Roy said, wanting to add something to let Kevin know he was still there, just incase he was going to say something he would later regret._

  _“I still love her, she’s such a big part of my life that I don’t think it can ever be the same without her, she’s Sam’s mother but as much as I don’t want to live without her I have no choice.” He sighed. “This last year and a half I’ve been through a lot and you’ve been there every step of the way… without you and Alan and Lora I’d have been lost.”  Flynn still wasn’t looking anywhere but the wall ahead of him or the sky, Roy still couldn’t be sure why but he suspected it was because he was nervous or embarrassed about what he wanted to say. He silently hoped that was the case._

  _The silence returned and for Roy it was anything but comfortable, he didn’t want to move incase he made a sound, fought to keep his breathing calm and even. So far he had understood or at least reasoned with anything Kevin had told him but this seemed a little too close to home. He couldn’t make the connection between his friend kissing his program and Jordan’s wishes for her husbands happiness. There was no possible way Kevin Flynn could have realised or known the thoughts that had been working their way through Roy’s mind in the past couple of weeks, to him there was only one explanation and it seemed an odd way for his friend to deal with the pain. Still Roy wasn’t about to deny him what he needed even if it stung a little._

  _“Ram’s back in the system now and he’s upgraded every time you ask. You could always use the laser and go back inside, if that is what you really want.” Roy suggested, keeping his voice light._

  _Kevin laughed. “I’m not sure that would do any good.”_

  _“Because he doesn’t remember?” Roy asked but Kevin only laughed again._

  _“Nah, it would be kinda pointless.”_

  _“Oh.”_

  _Kevin moved then, turned and shifted in his hammock for his legs to be hanging over the side and he was finally looking at Roy._

  _“I’m sorry for not being very clear about any of this but I have to admit I never thought I would have to be… hell I’m sure the only thing Ram would do would be to calculate the probability of success… or mock me.” He sounded so much like his older happier self that Roy was taken a back. “But that’s not the point, do you really not have any idea what I’m talking about?” Kevin asked him, eyes looking straight at Roy’s in the low light._

  _“I’m not sure.” He admitted, really the whole thing was confusing his already tired and wary brain. He was sure he was too old for this, in fact he’d figured that ‘this’ would never be an issue in the first place. Roy had long since decided to live the bachelor life and enjoy it, anything contrary to that seemed highly unusual and almost impossible to consider._

  _“I don’t want to Kiss Ram again, there’s no point and in all honesty, right now it would feel like cheating.” Kevin told him, looking at Roy for as long as he could before he found the hammock interesting enough to study for a while, running his hands up and down the side._

  _“Cheating how?” Roy uttered, suddenly a lot closer to whatever meaning there had been behind this conversation than he had been before._

  _“I don’t want to lead Ram on, not that I think he’d let me anywhere near him if I tried.” Kevin sighed, took a long deep breath, pushed his hands through his hair again then looked straight at Roy. “Look, if you don’t want to hear the rest of this or you’re just doing it out of a sense of obligation then I can leave, it’s just I’ve been wondering if you felt it too or if you would at least want to try, life is much too short for this man. It really is.” He was still staring at his friend, holding his gaze again._

  _“I’m not doing this out of a sense of obligation.” Roy’s voice was very quiet as he spoke but it did’t matter when Kevin could hear him clearly from where he sat. “And I want you to continue, I’m not going to turn you away.” He was terrified, face scarlet and hands trembling with a heart that was pounding in his chest._

  _“You sure?” Roy nodded at Kevin’s question. “Well okay then.” He took a deep breath, then another and a third before continuing. “I’ve never been too bothered by gender, always figured that you love who you love and you can’t help it sort of thing. I know that’s not a common view, especially not around here.”_

  _“Very true.” Roy agreed, a sad state of affairs that it was but people let fear guide their actions and always had, he had never thought he would find himself on this side of things.… and in all honesty he wasn’t sure that he really was, did what he felt really make him completely one way or the other? He wasn’t sure he wanted to be labeled like that._

  _“I’ve only ever really kissed a guy - and even then he wasn’t strictly speaking human once.” It took a little while for Roy to get his head around what he had said but he got there. “Before and after that it had only really been women that interested me and I haven’t given it a second thought, but there are times… I don’t know man, I just wonder if we could have something more than we do.”_

  _Roy was silent but he hoped he looked as though he was okay with all of this, because he was, at least he was pretty sure he was._

  _“Roy?” Flynn asked, looking a little nervous but not scared, not in a way that worried him. “Would that be okay with you? You can say no man, I’m not, what I mean is this is your choice and if you say no…” Roy knew Flynn would have left it there, pretended the whole thing had never happened, they would remain friends and co workers and everything would be fine… but it would be an empty sort of fine with barriers he was certain he would grow to resent. No, Roy knew what he wanted._

  _“I’m going to need to move the hammocks closer…. and you might need your own key.” Roy managed, not sure how well he trusted himself not to sound like a sap by saying something mushy with feelings involved… he was not ready for that, not by a long shot. But the possibility of something, that he could deal with._

  _Kevin chuckled. “Need any help with that?” He asked, standing now and probably just as grateful as Roy for how low the light still was._

  _“Uh, sure.” He hadn’t meant right now but it was as good a time as any. He slipped out of the hammock with a little less grace than normal but still enough that it looked well practiced. Flynn followed him to the wall with the hammock restraints and copied Roy’s actions, both ignoring the other’s shaking hands and uncooperative fingers as they untied and retied the ropes over the strong supports. Having moved them both so that they were right next to each other this then left the two men with very little room to move. Roy was pretty sure Flynn could see how red his face had gotten but he couldn’t decide what to do next, he didn’t want to make a wrong move… or admit how much of an unexperienced teenager this was all starting to make him feel._

  _“Hey.” Flynn’s voice was softer than he was used to hearing it and a warm hand came to rest on his shoulder. “We can sort out that key another time.”  Roy chuckled and even smiled a little as some of the tension and unease left them._

  _“This mean you’re going to stop calling me Ram?” Roy asked, wondering if maybe now he could get his real name reinstated in the work place, people were getting him confused with memory within a computer and it was getting harder to explain. Alan’s and Lora’s nicknames were so much cooler._

  _“No, I see no reason why I should stop calling you that at work, but I will when it’s like this, Roy is much better for this… calling you Ram would get a little weird.” Flynn admitted, turning his friend to face him, cast in shadow though he was it seemed better this way, more light when they were both more comfortable. It was odd to be so okay with something and yet so nervous but he supposed it was the same way with actors and singers. Stage fright was always worth it once you were on stage._

  _“Yeah.” Roy met his eyes and gave a small smile, this had to be close to the craziest thing he had done in his life._

  _Flynn moved closer, resting his head against Roy’s and breathed, so different and so new and not there to help him deal with any of his past love or pain, he was learning his capacity to love was a little greater than he had first thought. Not that they were there yet but there was potential and that was really what mattered. It was him that moved first, Roy still waiting for some sort of definite answer to whatever question he had and so it was Flynn that tipped his head down, placing his lips to his friends with just a little pressure to let him know what he wanted._

  _Roy’s parted and Flynn didn’t need anything more than that to move in and hold his friend, arms around his shoulders and feeling a pair of welcoming arms encircle his waist as he continued to move his mouth against his. The warmth shocked them both a little and the shyness was slipping away. Roy’s mind started to work out the logistics of relocating to the hammocks pressing against their legs on either side but the slow and continual press of mouths was distracting enough for him to just let it be for the moment._

 

****

 

_Hannah was asleep against his chest, she’d been awake briefly for her parents to explain where she was and who she was with. She had accepted seemingly unfazed by what had happen and Roy was pretty sure she thought she had been dreaming._

  _Alan and Lora were with the police, handing over and explaining the evidence behind her attempted kidnapping. The officer had advised it best to leave their daughter with someone they could trust and he had been more than willing, feeling Lora’s pain as she let go of her little girl and placed her in his care._

  _He dialled Kevin’s number by heart with his free hand, carefully keeping an arm around the three year old and picked up the phone, holding it between his ear and shoulder._

  _“Hello?” Flynn’s familiar voice greeted him._

  _“Hi, Looks like Alan and Lora will be heading home via yours to see Jett, they’re both still shaken up and I get the feeling they need to see him and make sure he’s okay.”  He didn’t need to introduce himself, neither bothered anymore and Flynn would have been expecting his call anyway._

  _“That’s fine, you going to wait and head along with them?” Flynn asked him and Roy could hear the boys running around and laughing in the back ground._

  _“Yeah, Alan offered me a lift for staying longer anyway, I think I’m going to have to start leaving my car at home, easier to explain that way.” He told him, smoothing Hannah’s hair as she murmured in her sleep, he could have sworn he heard her call him Ram and he smiled._

  _“True, but usually it isn’t a problem.” Flynn chuckled and Roy knew as well as he that this was the first time there had ever been an issue in all that time. “You staying afterwards or heading home?” He asked and Roy shifted the phone that was slipping from his shoulder so it was wedged against his throat._

  _“Will staying be okay?” He asked, given the circumstances he didn’t know if he should. “I know Sam is used to me but I’m not so sure how Jett will react.”_

  _“Can’t see why he would have a problem with it, they’ll be in bed soon anyway, they’re pretty worn out already, I told Jett Alan, Lora and Hannah were coming to say goodnight and he pulled a face before yawning. Seriously, the boy’s won’t notice.”_

  _“Alright then.” He agreed. Hannah started to wake up and was mumbling against his shoulder, he hoped she wasn’t drooling on his shirt. “I have to go, I’ll see you in an hour or so.”_

  _“Sure see you then.” The line disconnected and Roy finally let the phone fall to the desk before putting it back in it’s cradle._

  _“Mommy?” Hannah mumbled rubbing sleep from her eyes. She looked up at him unsure of who he was, Roy just smiled and waited. “Uncle Roy?” She looked around for her parents and he smoothed his hand through her light brown hair, Lora had told him it worked like a charm and instantly she relaxed._

  _“Hi Hannah, your parents will be back soon, they have to talk to some important people.” She nodded at this and tried to stand, suddenly very heavy on his thigh so he lifted her to sit on his desk._

  _“Ram isn’t a sheep.” She told him with a smile. Roy just stared at her, Alan had mentioned his former actuary program had been involved with what had happened but it still seemed strange to him that his program could be spoken of like a person and that Flynn still insisted on calling him that at work. But he had to admit he had no idea what Hannah was talking about, three year old logic was a little beyond him._

  _“Okay…”_

  _But Hannah only smiled, looking so much like her mother when she was working on something or another that no one else could make head nor tale of._

  _“He looks like you but younger and he’s a program not a sheep which is good because sheep can’t talk and Ram told me stories whilst Yori and Tron were flying the solar sailor, which was really pretty!” She told him rambling as if she was trying to say everything that was on her mind all at once. “It was a little scary though.” she suddenly looked younger than her three years but as frightened as he’d expected her to be._

  _“You’re safe now though and there were programs there to help you.” He reassured her patting her head gently, he wasn’t sure whether she was old enough to consider it condescending, she smiled a little though so he guessed not._

  _“I’m glad Ram’s not a Ram.” She stated again, looking at him and suddenly she looked very much like her father, Roy would have laughed had she not looked so serious. “Can I have a hug?” She then asked him, reaching her arms out and he obliged pulling her into his arms and holding her against his chest, ignoring her feet digging into his legs._

 

_\---_

 

_Jett and Sam had gone to sleep in their tent amongst the living room come fort as soon as the Bradley’s had left. Alan had admitted that he’d felt better once the people in question had been arrested but wouldn’t sleep easy for a little while, his strong sense of duty ever present in his friend. Roy could already tell they would let Hannah stay with them that night whether for the comfort of their child or themselves he couldn’t tell, but probably for both._

  _“Hey.” Muttered a low voice behind him and shortly after he felt the weight in the bed shift and Flynn settled down next to him. “You have that deep in thought look on your face, everything okay man?” He asked rolling to rest his chest against Roy’s back._

  _“Just thinking about what happened to Hannah, I’ve never seen Lora so shaken or Alan so angry.” He told him, shifting his hand to link it with Flynn’s._

  _“They’re fine and we’ve already made sure it will never happen again, as long as Tron’s in the system everything will be fine. Yori and Ram too.” He added as an after thought, because although he had admitted to a little hero worship with regards to the Tron program he had long known how capable the other two were._

  _“Hmm.”  Roy half replied and he felt the other man press kisses into his hair. It had taken them a while but they’d gotten pretty comfortable with the physical intimacy between them when they were alone, it was only the stigma attached to their situation that prevented them from telling anyone else. Even Alan and Lora had no idea, although if they had ever asked they’d agreed to be open with them._

  _“Seriously, is everything okay?” Flynn asked again when Roy didn’t respond or turn to face him like he normally did._

  _“Everything’s fine, just thinking about things is all.” He replied, squeezing Flynn’s hand._

  _“Is it because of the boys? We don’t have to do anything that would wake them and tomorrow’s saturday, Lora and Alan said they’d take them for the day so we have the day to ourselves.” They clearly wanted to take Jett home with then earlier that evening but had instead agreed to take both boys the following day._

  _“You’re really not bothered by what happened?” Roy asked without really meaning to._

  _“Of course I am, look what happened was horrifying and I swear to god if - Roy at least look at me.” Flynn demanded, squeezing his hand to the point where it hurt and he had no choice but to roll over to meet his gaze. “If that ever happened to Sam or anyone I love I would search until I found them then I’d go after whoever had tried to hurt them. In this case Hannah is safe and they’ve been caught.” His voice was stern and Roy knew the intensity was there in his eyes even in the darkness. “The laser has been shut down and locked out, no user is getting into the system, at least not without mine or Alan’s permission, if you want I’ll add you to the list too.”  He sounded annoyed rather than serious and Roy looked away._

  _“You don’t need to be like that.” Roy told him, aggravated by his sarcastic tone. “I don’t know why it’s bothering me so much, which is why I wasn’t going to say anything.”_

  _Nether of them said anything and the silence hung uncomfortably in the air around them_

  _“I’m sorry.” Kevin said at last releasing his hand and running it up and along his arm. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that. I just… I was trying to make you feel better…I know I shouldn’t but it’s force of habit.”_

  _“Making me feel better or being condescending?” Roy asked with a lighter tone as Flynn’s hand snaked around his neck._

  _“The latter.”  Flynn pressed his lips to Roy’s cheek, used to the gruff stubble there. Roy turned his head  a moment too late and Flynn smiled. “Sorry man.” Roy just shook his head and pulled Flynn towards him finally kissing him._

  _“It’s alright.” He whispered against his lips, kissing him again and holding him that little bit closer than maybe he should given they weren’t in a position to start anything. Neither had mastered being quiet enough not to wake the boys and right now there wasn’t the time for preparation. Flynn teased his mouth open with an eager tongue and Roy didn’t stop him, welcomed it and moaned quietly against him._

  _Flynn pulled away for breath eventually and Roy rested his head against his shoulder with his chest heaving until the burning ceased and his heart rate slowed with renewed oxygen._

  _“What time are Lora and Alan getting here?” Roy asked, fingers twitching to toy with the hem of Flynn’s boxers. Flynn laughed against his shoulder, frustrated and amused all at the same time, his hands had found themselves fisted into Roy’s shirt which wasn’t helping either of them really._

  _“I told Lora early, very early.”_

 

***

Seeing his face on the screen after so long and looking so young had taken a minute to process and the first few minutes of the video were white noise as far as his mind was concerned until he restarted it and paid attention to the words.

 He looked so young but really exactly the same age as he last remembered seeing him. His throat burned with repressed tears and his eyes stung at the physical shock of seeing Flynn again. Because although this was all so very wonderful and part of him had come back and part of him would be with him and the search had been worth it and really… and really what it meant was Kevin Flynn was gone and Roy Kleinberg had been left with nothing but his memoirs. 

 He blinked and the tears ran unbidden down his face, nothing held back as he watched and listened in silence. There were enough files there to watch one everyday for at least 20 years…. shorter if he wanted… but he wouldn’t. Because although it was heartbreaking and painful and sad it was still more than he had really expected, not since Sam Flynn had returned from his fathers Grid and told them all what had happened.

 “I never lost faith in you.” He told the video as Kevin on the screen gestured around his makeshift house in a cliff side. There were other things he wanted to say, other things he still couldn’t bring himself to say out loud, even talking about that with Quorra had been difficult - even though she had known about it anyway and he realised he didn’t need to hide - never had. Flynn had known the whole time.

  _“Until next time.”_ Kevin Flynn on the video told him. _“I miss you man.”_

 “Yeah.” Roy choked out, disconnecting the USB drive and knowing the first thing he would do when he got it home was to copy it, but for now, with shaking hands and tears still damp on his cheek he turned off the machine and headed to bed. Warm beneath the covers of the now familiar room and remembering without the heartbreaking feeling in his chest usually accompanying such things the two of them side by side and hand in hand and watching the stars.

 

***

 


End file.
